Well, that’s gotta sting. Globe columnist Brian McGrory — who has previously made clear his disappointment in Charlie Baker’s candidacy so far — really laid into him today.
You were supposed to be the white knight who would lead us through the remnants of the recession, the well-spoken turnaround specialist who understood not only the essence of the state budget, but the nuance of the human condition.
You were supposed to be the forward-thinking candidate who would make a weary electorate upbeat about the possibilities of the future. You were going to elevate the dialogue and be, as you alluded to early on, the adult in the race.
Here’s what’s happened instead: You’re the most negative presence in a stunningly nasty gubernatorial campaign. You’ve tried to take a bottle of Wite-Out to your résumé and your life. You’re emerging not as a serious candidate with serious ideas, but as another politician who will say anything for a vote.
McGrory dispenses some solid advice:
anyone giving you political advice right now – get rid of them.
Clearly, ex-campaign manager Lenny Alcivar wasn’t the problem, or at least, he wasn’t the only problem. Because things have gone from bad to bonkers since Alcivar was canned.
McGrory goes on to recite the impressive litany of Baker’s recent bouts of truthiness, forgetfulness, and other candidacy-related diseases — which, I am constrained to point out, we have dutifully chronicled here on BMG. He sums up their net effect thusly:
Many months into your long-awaited race, there’s precious little that’s authentic about you or your campaign…. All over town, the sounds of silence you’re hearing are the sounds of disappointment. All those prominent people cheering you in December and January are scratching their heads about you in May.
His bottom line: try being yourself.
Voters like politicians to be true to themselves, and you don’t seem to be comfortable with what you’ve done – surprising, because you’ve done a lot…. Be more honest about yourself and your opponents. Be the candidate so many people thought they were getting before you seemed desperate for the job.
I cannot resist noting that I gave Baker the same advice a few weeks back when he proclaimed that his $1.7 million take-home pay was a “middle class” salary:
This is exactly why Charlie Baker is such a surprisingly lousy candidate. He is desperately trying to pretend to be something he isn’t: a regular, middle-class guy. He should run as what he is: a wealthy, Harvard-educated, elite insider who knows a lot about state government and the health care industry (having spent years working for both) and (the story goes) has the tools to fix it.
The electorate is not stupid, despite what wannabe politicians like Baker apparently think. Voters rapidly sniff out phonies and punish them, as Mitt Romney learned in 2008. The more Baker pretends to be just like the regular folks he wants to represent, the further he’s going to fall in the polls.
The resonances are uncanny: two politicians trying to pretend to be someone (something?) they aren’t, and imagining the electorate and everyone interested in politics has no memory whatsoever.
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p>BTW, I think that mechanical bull business below has some real staying power. A picture of Baker on his bull might well end his campaign right there. If anyone is looking for it, Tim Cahill should be. If anyone has one, or even a picture of anyone who was at the event riding the fake Republican bull, as it were, please post it.
at Baker’s re-re-re-launch (he has had a few) at Faneuil Hall with Matt Amorello.
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p>Please, please, someone have this photo.
I think this mechanical bull thing (not to mention the other money-burning activities of Charlie’s) is a winner. Plus, it allows so many slam-dunk quips, e.g.:
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p>(1) Charlie Baker claims he’s careful with his money. What a bunch of bull.
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p>(2) Charlie Baker — don’t let him take YOU for a ride!
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p>(3) This is Charlie’s idea of getting a bull market?
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p>(4) Baker sure knows how to use his bully pulpit.
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p>Etc.
Kerry Healey’s former campaign brain, and wasn’t he the man behind her ominous attack ads? How well did that work out for her?
Even the Herald in their own unique way are starting to pile on Baker’s truthiness.
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and it goes quite well with your tagline, johnk.
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p>Some excerpts:
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p>To paraphrase the 2008 Republican presidential nominee, Charlie Baker is spending money like a drunken sailor (or perhaps a drunken rodeo clown?)
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p>Then you have the inevitable Republican Establishment Defense:
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p>Because there’s nothing like raising name recognition like a multi-million dollar corporate elite looking like a fool trying to ride a mechanical bull.
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p>We had both of those items at our recent campus carnival and both were a ton of fun. To be fair though they were rented with our student activity fee and not campaign funds. Shouldn’t that money have gone to creating at least a single positive Baker ad? So far they guy has had zero.
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p>I had an incredibly amount of hope and optimism that Baker could be a Republican I’d be proud of voting for, of course he may have fooled me once at the beginning of his campaign but I won’t be fooled again in November. Neither will most people in MA.
This guy went to Harvard? Our Harvard? The one in Cambridge? Or is there some other Harvard in Ohio someplace?
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p>He’s either dumb or dishonest. Or this is some elaborate plan to lower expectations.
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p>From what I see so far, the smartest Harvard guy from Swampscott is still Mike Lynch at Channel 5.
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the Oberlin of the East.
I have the t shirt somewhere
He was born into wealth, he went to elite schools, he had a kick ass seven figure job that I would certainly kill for, and he had the GOP crown his ass the next governor. Deval’s poll numbers are in the tank, Cahill’s crazy move to the right will surely backfire and allow Baker to be the middleman in the race and pick up the indys, most Republicans, and the moderate Dems angry at Deval. Instead he has run a chaotic campaign with a cacophony of different voices drowning each other out. He is clearly not having a fun or a good time on the campaign trail, he is clearly angry at everyone for not just giving him the keys to the corner office already, and he is mad the race is actually a lot harder than it was supposed to be, mostly because he made it harder on himself. I almost think Baker wishes he could have just applied for the Governors office, gotten an interview with a board, and then be hired without having to go through the indignity of actually getting elected by real people. His disdain for politics and meeting people seeps through every time I see him. Deval on the other hand, seemed miserable as Governor, frankly did a miserable job as Governor, but now seems animated again because he feeds off the crowd, loves politicking, and loves campaigning. The guy has town halls not because he likes the grassroots or even respects him, but because he loves to work a room, he loves to answer questions, and he likes the sound of his own voice eloquently solving all of our problems. Both men have massive egos and a narcissism that hurts their ability to govern, but there is no other politician in this pitiful state that can warm to a crowd and fire them up like Deval. He is a master like Clinton and Obama. Baker is more like a Coakley, coldly indifferent to all the crowds, the handshakes, and just tired and exasperated and hoping this darned election was over so he could have the freakin job. And it is certainly showing. The picture of Baker on a bull will be just as devastating as Dukakis in a tank and I can’t wait until it comes out.
I agree with that comparison. I think Baker, like Coakley, thought this race would be a cakewalk. Also like Coakley, Baker hates actually campaigning. It’s a bad combination for politicians like these two when the cakewalk doesn’t happen and they are “reduced” to actually having to press the flesh and talk to voters.
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p>One point on Deval — his first two years (especially the first) were terrible, no doubt due in part to his inexperience in governing. Once he shook up his staff, however, things started turning around. He’s clearly still vulnerable, but his better second-half performance, along with his excellent campaign skills and the improving economy, will serve him well in this campaign.
Agree on all points.