That depends on how things go over the years. I think that things might be looking up for his reputation in the history books because things may be looking down for Hawaii.

After the Iran-Contra scandal, Ronald Reagan’s reputation never really recovered within the mainstream. Even after he died, amid the mourning, there was a uniform tone of respect throughout the society for the passing of a nice man, but even the right-wing (at least in my memory) did not get particularly emotional and insist that Reagan was a model president.

In fact, when Reagan left office amid a chorus of disappointment, the careers of Jimmy Carter and Tip O’Neil were rehabilitated. Carter had been criticized earlier as an idealistic failure, but now he was seen as intelligent, sober and responsible (in that sense, he was now seen as a conservative!). O’Neil had always been caricatured as the classic old boy, pork-barrel political insider, but after Reagan’s fall, O’Neil was seen as an old-fashioned man of the people.

Even earlier for Cayetano, when he left the governor’s office, there was a re-evaluation of him among the political class to the effect that he was then seen as the best governor since Burns. One will note that this kind of outpouring of respect did not await Linda Lingle when she left office. There was brief thanks, like “Thanks for not being corrupt.” She was seen as a professional hired to do a job that could not be entrusted to insiders like Hirono. She did an okay job and was amply rewarded with the status of high office. She worked hard, she got paid well, and now she and Hawaii could part ways. There was a sense that for her Hawaii was always a mere stepping stone to the national stage, and that her heart really lay with Israel. One cannot say this about Ben Cayetano.

Another question is the legacy of Dan Inouye. Mufi Hannemann initiated a grand project as a signature project to get himself elected governor, and that might have backfired. Inouye has taken up that very project as his swan song. That might be a terrible mistake in terms of reputation. If political legend stays in an office too long, not only might he come to be seen as a dinosaur living in another age. Worse yet, it might be revealed that he has feet of clay, and that he was never really that good. In fact, Inouye’s status lies with having gotten injured in a war fought generations ago. I always liked him, but he’s nothing special, he’s just some guy. 35 million people died in WWII.

But remember that when Cayetano first got into office, he had big plans. He had a convention center built with public funds, and he wanted to build an ocenarium and an art museum. He was then seen as a pretty typical liberal. Then the economy caved in. Unfortunately, few in Hawaii seems to have noticed that. (I remember hearing UH professors talk about what a disappointment Cayetano was in his betrayal of the faculty, but when they were asked what what they would do in his situation, they either fell silent or would laugh and say they would do as he did.) And one hears this sentiment echoed here in the comments on this blog, on how the past twenty years have really sucked with poor leadership — with no comment made about how the economy has collapsed three times in that period. Also, Cayetano’s personality does not help. Obama, in contrast, projects a sunny, youthful, polished and hip persona that might not be the real Obama, but it’s like honey to a bear.

The other group consists of local Democratic Party insiders. They are conservative insiders who imagine themselves to be liberals. (You may recall your suggestion that perhaps the local for-profit utility be made an official agency like in Seattle (or a cooperative, like on Kauai). There was a deafening silence on that issue. In the “bluest of blue states”, as Hawaii is often called, one would think that talk of ‘nationalizing’ a corporate monopoly would spread like wildfire, but instead your idea seems to have been greeted with crucifixes raised in silent fear, as if against a vampire.) When conservative insiders who imagine themselves progressive encounter a reformist politician who wants change but has the reputation of being conservative, it’s like matter hitting anti-matter.