Then there is the look. Both are middle-aged,sport the conservative suit of a politician, parttheir sandybrown hair on the left side and avoidflashing a toothy smile.

And they declared their candidacy exactly fourweeks apart at the same building--the Boston ParkPlaza Hotel.

Same Speech Writer?

The two may also share the same speech writer.Bot launched their campaigns with impassionedpleas for economic change and vitriolic attacks onWeld.

"My reason for running is short and simple; theworking people of this state confront an economicchallenge unlike any we've faced in ourlifetimes," Barrett said during his declarationspeech. "William Weld is too comfortable, toocomplacent and too oblivious to do anything aboutit."

Roosevelt's declaration speech--which weighedin at exactly 10 pages long, the same length asBarrett's said almost the same thing.

"I run for governor because the only person inMassachusetts who does not seem to know what thereal world is like today is the governor we havenow," Roosevelt said during his declaration.

Sound familiar?

Both candidates resorted to analogy indescribing their archnemesis Weld.

"His political operatives are pretty good atdamage control, so he passes from crisis to crisislike the nearsighted cartoon character Mr. Magoo,"Barrett said. "From the start, Governor Magoo hasbeen too distracted to do anything about thecentral reality of this economy."

Roosevelt avoided the pop-culture simile, butmade much the same point by comparing Weld toformer President Herbert Hoover.

"They both stood by and did nothing while thenational and state economies deteriorated,"Roosevelt said. "They were both one-termers, andthey were both beaten by Roosevelt."

Barrett and Roosevelt also share the same petcauses.

Both sponsored bills protecting gay and lesbianrights, and both proudly cite education reformbills as their crowning achievements in thelegislature.

The similarities between them go back a longway--all the way to their college days. Both wereinvolved with Democratic politics as Harvardundergraduates.