* It’s called a “First Day of Fairness” plan. It’s a Charlie Crist campaign gimmick that makes for an effective, thematically populist line.
It prioritizes the protection of the rights of gay, lesbian and transgender workers (within agencies reporting to the governor’s office and their contractors); a minimum-wage hike (for contractors doing business with the state); equal pay for women (for companies doing business with the state); the granting of contract work to in-state applicants whenever possible; and more transparency in public records.
According to Crist, it’s about “giving middle-class families and small businesses the same opportunities and protections the big corporations have enjoyed under Rick Scott.”
The Scott campaign immediately went into rapid-response, retaliation mode as campaign chairman Sen. John Thrasher fired back. “Charlie Crist thinks he can win this election by doing his best Barack Obama impersonation–all talk and no action,” countered Thrasher. “It’s telling that his new proposal includes no plans for job creation or education. … Crist’s record speaks louder than any of his words … It was anything but ‘fair’ to the middle class.
“And, by the way, I still want to be president of Florida State University. ”
* And So It Goes, featuring Michael Douglas and Diane Keaton, has not been well received by cinema critics. In fact, it’s been almost universally lambasted as lame, cinematic schmaltz. But as with any major movie, it comes with a pull-quote assessment that looks good in a movie ad. In the one running locally, the shout-out quote says: “The Charmer of the Year.” That line, which could play well, was the opinion of Dean Richards, movie critic for WGN-TV/Chicago.
But there’s this insider strategy of movie marketers to not just cherry pick reviews–but context as well–in looking for “endorsements.” Richards’ actual take:
“Here’s the good news. It’s the summer, and it’s a movie not based on a comic book action character or a video game. It’s not even an assembly-line sequel. And it doesn’t star Adam Sandler. It’s a retirement-age rom-com that’s not entirely bland and unwatchable, although it is gratuitously corny.
“But, with Douglas and Keaton I was, candidly, wishing for cool senior chemistry. It never happened. Alas, this wasn’t ‘THE CHARMER OF THE YEAR’ I was hoping for.”