|January 28, 2009|
|Trade of Blago for Paterson Works for Illinois and N.Y.|
|By Kevin McCauley|
|Move over, Harold Burson. Take a hike, Richard Edelman. There is a new PR sheriff in town. Blago is on the scene. |
The Illinois Governor is bound for the PR Hall of Fame following his boffo performance on the Big Apple’s media stage. College PR students will soon put aside textbooks with the musty fable of Johnson & Johnson handling the ancient Tylenol crisis to study picture-perfect PR: Blagojevich takes on New York.
Seitel, take note.
Hot Rod got quality ink and airtime that PR pros only dream about.
How about a front page New York Times picture of Blago talking things over with Barbara Walters on “The View”? Not good enough for you? Are you more juiced by a picture-trifecta on the Wall Street Journal’s “A-3.” There’s one with Walters, one with Diane Sawyer of “Good Morning America” and a third of Blago matching wits with Geraldo Rivera of Fox News.
There’s even word that the supremely confident Illinois Gov. didn’t let the makeup people mess with his should-be-trademarked hairstyle. Joy Behar did tousle the famous moptop, but my boy remained cool as a cuke.
The sweet mediafest upset the locals back home. Springfield legislators, who are focused like a laser beam on impeaching Blago, looked a little jealous as their target dominated NYC’s media stage, taking his case to the people. The Governor is trying to play us for fools, sniffed the Chicago Tribune. It issued a news bulletin today, saying taxpayers in the “Land of Lincoln” won’t be footing the bill for Blago’s PR firm, The Publicity Agency. How trite!
C'mon Trib, think of the PR spillage that washes over Illinois anytime the Gov speaks.
If Illinois doesn't value its leader, New York does. How about a trade? Blagojevich has hit the big time. It’s now unfair to exile him to the “Second City.” New York, for its part, has a bumbling Governor who has managed to irritate the Empire State’s royalty (Kennedy, Cuomo and Clinton families) by his ham-handed search for a replacement for Senator Clinton. Granted, Blago’s own hunt for a successor to Senator Obama ruffled a few feathers (and bounded across many ethical lines), but he got the job done.
Let’s swap governors. David Patterson will do his best in low-key Springfield. He simply is not center stage material. On the other hand, Blago would be welcome with open arms any time he wanted to escape chilly Albany for some culture and media fawning in New York City, which is only 90 miles away.
A governor trade is an offer that neither state can refuse.
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