Brilliant

GA's going to get a lot of flack from my more hardcore peeps for this but I think the  "Michael and Lisa" video is brilliant.

Brilliant politics.

Here's the deal, angry peeps and GA detractors alike: I can objectively assess the people whom I find the most objectionable or just simply disagree with. And have no problem listing their positive attributes or achievements, if they've got any.

For example:

Perry Belfiore:  Best hair in Hoboken, shampoos daily with Fructis Garnier Shampoo with Conditioner. 
Timmy Occhipinti: A terrific son (GA can tell by the frequency with which he quotes his mother at City Council meetings)
Beth Mason: Svelte figure.   She's lost a lot of weight and looks attractive.
Terry Castellano: Her Washington Street shop has  great bargains.
 Mike Russo: Devoted husband and soon-to-be-father (see video)
Nino Giacchi: Doesn't overload GA's mailbox with crap every election cycle
Perry Klaussen: Has a cute dog with a cute name
Pol Pot:  Ambitious, voted Boy Most Likely to Rule Despotically
Paul Swibinski:great dancer
Mike Novak: Has a lovely, talented daughter
Sadaam Hussein: Good disciplinarian
Lane Bajardi:  Um... uh... well... ahem...  gee... nothing good there.  Nothing at all.  In fact, the guy's a swollen tick on Hoboken's body politic. Sorry folks!  

Now you understand the importance of recognizing the virtues of your opponents.  Well.. I guess I didn't explain that part...  Look, no one is ALL bad... except for (see above).

If you think your opponents are ALL bad, then just look in the mirror and you'll see a militant partisan.  And while you're there, comb your hair.

Back to the vid...

I have to hand it to Russo.  2 weeks ago he couldn't master an Excel spreadsheet, now he's produced a slick, black and white video with soundtrack, which presents him as somewhere between Mother Theresa and  Mahatma Gandhi.  The setting: his living room next to his visibly-pregnant wife.  Her demeanor is sweet, calm, and she looks at her husband adoringly.  We automatically like her, are transfixed by her belly-rubbing, and if SHE likes HIM... well, he can't be that bad, right?

Just in case the more skeptical viewer wants to reject this as a slick, softball bit of political marketing, the off-screen  interviewer disarms us with one hardball question:

With a name like 'Russo' your opponents always bring up your father, former Mayor Anthony Russo who was convicted on corruption charges some years ago. How do you react when people bring him up and how has it affected your relationship with him?

WOW.

Russo confronts this most personal and thorny question in his own home in front of his pregnant wife... and I looked over to her right away... the poor thing is pregnant!  How could you, you shrewish interviewer!  You heartless harpie!  Back to Hell with you! 

Immediately, the viewer is manipulated into the human drama of the moment and away from the political one... FABULOUS.  Applause from GA.  Dynamite.  The transference of the political to the personal while milking empathy from your audience...  Russo scores! 

The moment when that bitchy interviewer asks the mean question in front of Mrs. Russo.

Now, this won't work on EVERYONE... certainly not YOU... but it's pretty damn good stuff.   This is not the video that your Uncle Shlomo took at your nephew's bar-mitzvah; this is a highly produced, edited, choregraphed, expensive piece of political rebranding aimed right at you.  Well, not YOU but everyone else BUT you.  If you don't get the sophistication here, you're not paying attention.

And you'd BETTER.

Because the Council of No is co-opting our tools and meeting us on the internet battlefield armed to the teeth.  They're going after the demographic least inclined toward them through a new-and-improved online presence that repackages themselves as... whatever they want YOU to think they are.  In other words, not what they REALLY are.  Get it now?

Check out Terry Castellano's web site.  More conventional fare.  But the woman's Twittering like there's no tomorrow.   You may know what GA thinks about Twitter...  here it is in a succinct rant of mine on a previous post:


There you go.  You know, after that post I got some emails from people saying that the Mayor tweets too. Like I had broken the Eleventh Commandment.  Thou Shalt Not Diss our Tweeting Mayor.

Well, whoopdi-freakin-doo.  I still think Twitter is idiotic.  And that Mayor Zimmer  is terrific. Just like our opponents have good qualities (see above list), our allies can do things we don't like. Like  Twitter.

You rock, Mayor-girlfriend!

And in case you haven't seen the subject video, here it is.

What do you think?

Comments

  1. Russo is savvy. As I said over the at the stable: Never has the distance between messaging and reality been greater but it doesn't erase his recent and past record of working against reform and progress in Hoboken. He seems to be expecting an opponent and I hope he's correct for the sake of reform.

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  2. Best part was there's no difference between old and new Hoboken. And I got a junkyard park to sell you.

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  3. Any theories about why Russo decided to bring up the Pino site and suggest the city buy it? It might be viable as a park after a major clean-up and environmental assessment. However, it opens up a can of worms in view of the Pino/Russo $5 a tow scandal. One has to wonder who the realtor for the Pino site might be? surely not Mama Russo? I think even the Russos realize that won't fly.

    http://www.hudsonreporter.com/view/full_story/2407448/article-Not-off-the-hook-Former-towing-operators-sentenced--one-tells-FBI-that-both-Russos-wanted-bribes

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  4. I'm not especially interested in his father and never have been. The question I would have wanted asked would be about John Corea's theft and Russo's math error to explain it.

    More stage craft. Get here soon, June...

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