I have no idea who Globe columnist Brian McGrory backs for Governor. But his column today makes me wonder if he doesn’t harbor a secret desire to see Deval Patrick win the primary.
Most of his column is devoted to bashing Chris Gabrieli’s recent “minimum wage job” tour, in which Gabs donned a white apron and served up pastries at Mike’s in the North End (which isn’t actually a minimum wage job, but whatever). Here’s part of what McGrory has to say:
If you’re Chris Gabrieli, please, immediately, unapologetically, fire whichever overpaid consultants told you to make believe you were a minimum wage worker at Mike’s Pastry….
If Gabrieli wants to see how the working poor live, … [g]o sit in people’s living rooms in Roxbury and Medford and Springfield and learn what’s actually going on in their lives. Once there, listen, rather than talk. And don’t call the press.
Gosh, if only there were a candidate doing stuff like that.
Oh yeah …
LYNN…. While competitors Chris Gabrieli and Tom Reilly have been blanketing the airwaves with commercials, the under funded Patrick campaign has been forging ahead with a grassroots approach that features more listening than talking. âInstead of just doing 30-second TV ads in the last few weeks before the vote, it’s about coming out into communities where you live and where you work, talking to you and your parents, and more important, listening to you,â said Patrick….
This was definitely not your garden variety political campaign. If we hadn’t been there today, no one outside of Lynn would ever know about it. But Deval Patrick is betting that a ton of just-below-the-radar grassroots work can beat the better-funded operations of Gabrieli and Reilly. And so far, his clear lead in all available polling suggests he may be crazy like a fox.
One thing I completely disagree with McGrory about is his characterization of this year’s gubernatorial campaign as “stultifyingly dull.” I think it’s just the opposite – it’s totally fascinating. Everyone agrees that, as of right now, Deval Patrick has at least a respectable chance of winning the primary. If that happens, he will have upset conventional wisdom about what wins, and what doesn’t, in a whole bunch of really interesting ways. How can anyone interested in politics find that “dull”?
Anyone else find this hilarious:
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“The “customers” were, for the most part, interns for the Gabrieli campaign. When the event began, Jennifer Dunphy and Liesl Grebenstein , 20-year-old college students, ordered a box of cannoli. When a TV camera arrived, Dunphy returned for more cannoli. Then a print photographer showed up and Grebenstein was back at the counter — this time for eclairs.”
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I also find this funny when it’s the other candidates (including mine), but it reminded me of how I wondered just how many of Gabrieli’s interns/campaign staff were there among the 15-20 or so people marching with him at the Chelmsford 4th of July parade.
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Before any Gabrieli supporters jump all over me, you do have to admit, he has the least ground volunteers of any of the candidates. All candidates do this to some degree, but I think Gabrieli has to rely on it much more. I am no intern, nor a paid campaign staffer, just a volunteer in a town among many…when we show up to events to hand out info for Deval, there usually isn’t a campaign staffer to be seen.
…but Brian doesn’t have the balls to go after the enablers of these silly photo opps: the media who cover and publish/broadcast the junk.
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Brian, ya have met the enemy and it is you!
On July 21st, McGrory salivated all over a Republican politician’s photo ops:
Bleahhhhhhh.
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Funny how McGrory gave little space to critical thought about Romney–such as, why didn’t you examine the tunnels when you first became Governor?
David,
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I know you’ve seen my report on Deval’s birthday party. I just returned from a trip to the Post Office (which, here in rural Massachusetts is one of the two key social centers; the other being the town dump), where I ran into an acquaintance who had been at the event last night.
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We exchanged impressions, and I was pleased to have some of my observations reinforced. We noted that the audience ran the whole gamut of the social spectrum of the Berkshires, ranging from young black women from Pittsfield to students and teachers to tradespeople and professionals to the upper crust of Berkshire society. And Deval spoke to each and every one of them. He is saying the things that people want to hear.
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And I totally disagree with the single-issue analytics going on in some quarters (yes, I read the MassINC article on taxes). People are ready for change, for real leadership, and they see those qualities in Deval, and more. Smart, principled, caring, knowledgeable, self-deprecating, sense of humor; the accolades come from people in all walks of life.
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Finally, as we parted, my friend shot off, “and all of this hosted by a gay married couple — only in Massachusetts!”
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Sure, I’m aware that not all of the state is like the Berkshires, but enough of it is that this man will be elected because he speaks to what people who live here care about. And no one issue is going to make or break the campaign. The real issue is whether enough people will learn about him in time to vote on September 19.
âInstead of just doing 30-second TV ads in the last few weeks before the vote, it’s about coming out into communities where you live and where you work, talking to you and your parents, and more important, listening to you,â said Patrick….
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I was at the Chelmsford Towm Hall in late June when Deval gave a perfect example of “listening”… The first question asked of him was his position on sound barriers along Rte 3 in Chelmsford for which funding has been approved by the legislature but impounded by the Governor. Deval’s answer? He asked the questioner to take him on a tour of the area as soon as the forum was over.
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Now that’s what I call not only LISTENING but taking action!!!
(Disclaimer: Gabrieli supporter)
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Seeing “Cannoli-gate” being raised by the Globe yet again just adds fuel to my personal fire, fire which I let burn in an earlier post on the Globe’s apparent bias.
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First, why a campaign photo op is getting so much press attention is beyond me. If McGrory wanted to write a piece on the need for political candidates to take the needs of the working poor seriously, he could’ve written one without dragging out the non-story of Gabrieli staging an event somehow exhibiting he’s somehow “out of touch” with the reality of the working poor or “ordinary people.” I don’t understand how the Mike’s Pastry thing warrants so much print. Unless there’s a bias.
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Second, the media and some Deval supporters seem to think that Gabrieli and Reilly aren’t campaigning just because their work doesn’t get picked up by big media outlets. Whose grassroots is really below the radar then? Gabrieli does have a grassroots operation and he has been extensively touring the commonwealth, as Reilly had been until the Big Dig put his campaign on brief hiatus. Gabrieli has been sitting with people and hearing their stories and concerns, just as he did in 2002. Hell, I’ve told him about my own experience growing up in poverty and how that experience is in part illustrative of how “the least of us” need a better system to help pull the disadvantaged up. I didn’t get any noblesse oblige or disinterest from him, but genuine interest. He’s taken this same interest in everybody he’s met, and all of the disadvantaged schools and children he’s helped through his non-profit work.
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Where is the same hair-splitting scrutiny and critique of Deval’s corporate record and campaign? Or his lack of prior involvement in Massachusetts policy-making? One column on Friday and earlier coverage of Ameriquest is it?
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As you can tell, I’m a little fed up with fluff pieces by Boston’s newspaper of record.
I find your interpretation of the Globe’s bias fascinating because, as someone on the other side of the fence, I’ve often had the impression that the paper was biased against Patrick (and to some extent, in favor of Reilly). Frank Phillips in particular comes off as a Reilly shill, and articles like the recent one about UAL are long on insinuation and short on facts. Then of course there’s Joan Vennocci, who I find very cynical in general and probably comes down on everyone equally.
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The truth is probably that our views are both somewhat tainted by our personal preferences. The Globe, of course, is not a singular entity — many different people report for the paper, each with his own interpretation of current events. If anything, the paper is probably much more biased towards “whatever sells papers” than any particular candidate. If lashing out against fluffernutters is a winning article, then it’s easy to see how a headline about Gabrieli working at Mike’s becomes a big deal.
Because at the very least he certainly doesn’t favor Patrick.
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If the Globe is biased towards any particular candidate, I really really REALLY don’t think it’s Deval Patrick.