Fresh off his Killer Coke triumph, Frank Phillips continues his work as the crusty, cynical, cigar-chomping journo who’s there to put the screws to this bunch of bozos running for Big Cheese; who’s hacked off at the Harveys trying to pull the wool over our eyes; who’s seen it all and it’s all the same old story:
Since July 10, the day the Big Dig tunnel ceiling collapsed, the Democratic race for governor has not cracked the first eight minutes of the major Boston television newscasts. Now, with the primary five weeks from today, the Democratic race is limping into a critical final stage, pushed to the edges of the public’s interest.
For candidate Deval Patrick, the diversion has been a blessing. Several polls, including those taken by his rivals, show he has maintained a slim lead or is tied with his two Democratic rivals, even as he has been outspent this summer. Patrick has held the lead in most public polls since winning the Democratic Convention endorsement in early June.
Well, if the evening news is any indication of the public’s interest, they sure do love arson, missing blonde teenagers, “American Idol” and animal stories. And that’s why this Deval Patrick cat is walking away with it!
All right, let’s get the real scoop from fellow wiseguy Dan Payne:
“He has been extremely lucky,” said Dan Payne, a Democratic political consultant who left Patrick’s campaign last fall after serving as an adviser. Payne said that Patrick, with an extensive grass-roots operation, has positioned himself to take advantage of the low level of public interest in the campaign. “Luck is often the result of good design,” he said.
Whistling that ol’ Branch Rickey tune now, are we? Let’s hear Payne leaving the campaign in December: “When your opponent is taking on the gov over auto insurance rates and you’re celebrating your 100th home-made web site, something’s not right.” Well, maybe he’s coming around — reluctantly.
You can’t say that Healey, Reilly, and Gabrieli haven’t publicly visible: At this point, area TiVos have skipped merrily over countless hours of Gabrieli’s chalkboards, Kerry Healey’s vise-gripped whitebread families, and Tom Reilly’s scrapbook clippings. And at least in Gabrieli’s case, the saturation strategy seems to be working somewhat … but it’s not overwhelming the rest of the field, except in dollars spent.
You could say that none of the ads are very good — and you’d be right — but really the reason is that none of them have been very provocative or controversial. (So maybe I agree with Phillips.) I understand that Mike Dukakis and Phil Johnston are acting as the Queensberry Rules enforcers among the Dems; and Kerry Healey’s been such a nebbish that it’s hard to pin anything on her except “Not another Republican!” But someone could at least bare some fangs over the Big Dig — really pointing some fingers, naming names; or the MBTA’s recent failures; or shootings in the big cities; or LNG; or jobs; or pork in the budget, or whatever. I feel like this is the first round of the fight, still — feints, a few jabs, but no body blows yet.
Patrick will be on TV by the end of the week. And, like you, at the end of the day I thought the article was actually pretty accurate.
Yes, this past Saturday the Patrick coordinator on our town committee told us that Patrick will begin airing ads on television this week.
The main thrust was that the race hasn’t really heated up yet. OK on that front.
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The subplot was that Patrick is lucky, that he doesn’t really deserve to be where he is, since no one’s really paying attention. I mean, that’s pretty grudging, don’t you think?
But not entirely inaccurate (the lucky bit, not the undeserving bit). Payne, actually, is right: luck is often the result of good design. Patrick laid the groundwork well to get where he is, and things so far have gone pretty much according to plan. Having other big news items drown out the Gov’s race in the weeks in which Patrick’s opponents were on the air but he wasn’t was an unexpected bonus that made his original plan that much more effective. You can only take advantage of lucky strikes if you’re ready for them, and Patrick was.
As far as face time is concerned, the Big Dig CA/Tastrophe benefitted Romney and Reilly. So if one accepts that the govenor’s race has been marginalized by current events, one might expect that there would be a poll effect pro-Reilly.
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I just don’t think the others’ ads are that good, or remarkable in any way. They’re boring, and first salvos in the media race, in any event. You wouldn’t want your first ads to be primo Atwater/Rove stuff.
But it didn’t show up in the latest Survey USA poll – I think Reilly actually dropped a point, IIRC.
Yeah, see, it seems this key-punchin, fish-wrap-peddler is wastin’ ink and killin’ trees so he can put the bum’s rush on my pal, Deval. Not good, ya see, sistah. So here’s what we’re gonna do. Ya see. We’re gonna do what we always do. Gang up on him. Criticise him, even when he points out the obvious, like no one cares about the primary, we’ll moidah him.
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Look sistah, it’s a dirty business and rats like me and you out here live for the scraps. A pretty skirt like you don’t belong here. Oh, sure there are knucleheads and palookas like Frank Phillips around, but they don’t amount to a hill of beans when it comes to putting our boy, Deval, in office. Now, take thi Lucky Strike and this dime, go down a grab a cup-o-joe, smoke the fag, and think about what I just told ya.
Ernie, for this post alone, you are a big-leaguer, a real gasser.
Frank the Tank! Frank the Tank!
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“It’s so good once it hits your lips!”
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How does he still have a job anyway? This is the third time in a year I can think of, off the top of my head, that a Globe “journalist” has been set up for a big fall by someone with a BS story to tell. Count ’em up: 1. Dan Shaughnessy by Lucchino, et al during the Theo Epstein mess; 2. Whoever broke the now-debunked Big Dig memo; 3. Frank Phillips falling hard for Killer Coke.
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And, by the way, Dan Payne needs to get a new hobby, if not a new career. I can’t speak first hand about his political skills, but he is probably the single worst writer I’ve ever read. Perhaps radio should be his thing.
The hacks are very confused.
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Jesus, Mary and Joseph! Those GD internets!
Holy Mary, Mother of God! True believer grass-roots!
Christ Almighty! The unions are all over the place!
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The insider ballgame just isn’t so easy to call anymore. The old boys don’t know any of the new players. The smoke-filled rooms are still filled with same cynical know-it-alls, but they haven’t opened the windows in so long they lost track of what was going on outside.
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The smug tone of Payne’s opeds and the scandal du jour stories that Phillips digs up fail to disguise the fact that they are both clueless. If the Globe didn’t give them a platform to pontificate from they would be talking to themselves in a bar somewhere.
spoken like a true newby
If the Big Dig etc. are crowding the primary out of the news (as Phillips tells us to believe) and the airwaves are full of adds from everyone but Deval Patrick, then isn’t it Patrick who is out of luck?
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As opposed to what Phillips tells us to believe.
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When they called this the silly season I don’t think they meant special pleading by reporters.
Not if people flip the channel when they come on or just plain don’t like them. I thought the Gabrieli ad on after-school was a nice touch, but everyone else I’ve mentioned it too, regardless of whom they support, doesn’t. Go figure.
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I do think people remember the offbeat ads —
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Tsongas in 1978 “tickets”
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Tim Cahill’s ads
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Barney Frank “Neatness isn’t everything”
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Any others? (i’m thinking positive ads, not Willie Horton or Swift Boat)
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How many of these ads will be recalled years later, let alone weeks or days, we’ll see.
meant “to”, not “too”, sorry …
ALL of his radio ads have been drive-into-the-median funny!
TV ads when he ran for Congress were pretty funny. I remember one set in a classroom full of hellions- I think he may have ended up having to wear a dunce cap. In the ad, I mean! đŸ™‚
Has never lacked for a good sense of humor and self.