Daniel Tilson
I knew something was up with worrisome fans of Charlie Crist when my recently visiting mother-in-law, a solid Democrat, expressed both fondness and concern for Florida’s former governor.
She put it plain and simple, in the same nutshell as plenty of others like her at Sun City and other such vote-rich condo colonies have been putting it:
“Where is he, why isn’t he running a campaign, that Scott character is catching up, what’s going on?”
It’s an understandable grassroots version of the far less fathomable, but no less frenzied, misread of Crist and his campaign that came recently from no less than Adam Smith, vaunted political editor at the Tampa Bay Times.
While our own vaunted Context Florida publisher Peter Schorsch quickly, fairly and finely ripped Smith a new one in a resoundingly strong rebuttal, I chose a more…restrained approach with my mother-in-law.
“Barbara…” I began, wishing I had some good wine in hand to go along with our little political chat.
“Barbara, if you like Charlie, then no worries. This is just the calm before the campaign gets going in earnest. He’s very good at this, and he and his team are following a plan here, just wait, and watch…”
She looked hopeful for a moment, before that first look of consternation returned.
“Well okay, but I don’t see him anywhere, don’t see him on TV or anything, and that other guy, that Scott guy is all over the place.”
I took a big sip of wine and reassured her that while the governor she and so many of her condo colony friends don’t trust and can’t stand has made full manipulative use of his office to get free “earned media,” Charlie still had a plan, a great plan.
And away we go!
Barbara and her friend went off to Mexico the other day and so will miss this week’s launch of the brilliantly conceived Crist campaign’s full-blown multimedia juggernaut.
Maybe I’ll score some brownie points by emailing her links to coverage of all the Cristmania to come this month.
If this three-week tour of national TV and Florida is half as well executed as it was concocted, then Barbara and all the other Sunshine State seniors who see Gov. Rick Scott for the anti-Medicare, anti-Social Security, anti-middle-class extremist he truly is should be feeling far better by month’s end.
The sheer brilliance of this media blitz is that it’s built around the release of Crist’s new book, “The Party’s Over: How the Extreme Right Hijacked the GOP and I Became a Democrat”.
Catchy title!
If I had a million, I’d buy up the movie rights, right now.
The best part is that because it’s a book tour and not a series of campaign appearances (insert chuckle here), Charlie’s going to be paying Rick Scott back in spades for all that earned media the governor has lapped up for months.
TV appearances on the tour include MSNBC’s “Morning Joe,” Comedy Central’s “The Colbert Report,” CNN’s “Piers Morgan Live” and HBO’s “Real Time With Bill Maher.”
There’ll no doubt be other appearances, interviews and events added to the schedule, winding up with a slew of bookstore signings all over Florida guaranteed to get lots of coveted, free local news coverage.
Take that, Gov. Scott.
Of course, the Florida GOP will pour millions into attacking and ridiculing Charlie every step of the way.
But judging from my smart and savvy mother-in-law…good luck with that.
This is going to be fun.
Daniel Tilson is the owner of Full Cup Media, which offers cutting edge communication services. He lives in Boca Raton.
