-- I think Jim Davis scored with his pick for lieutenant governor. Though Jones has had a bout with ethical controversy, Daryl Jones knows his stuff, is a skilled politician, and will bring some needed energy to the ticket. He's also proven himself to be a political survivor. Politically, I think it was a brilliant move, since it should fire up the Democratic base, namely black voters, and get more people out to the polls. But bad on Linda Kleindienst and Bill Hirschman, who in their story on the Jones decision scurried to overused political hack
and quote-machine Jim Kane for comment. Here's the quote from Kane, who is best known as the do-boy for the Forman family of land barons and developers:
"Jim Davis's base is in the Tampa, central Florida corridor. He shouldn't need help there. In equal size and importance, especially for Democratic candidates, are Dade, Broward and Palm Beach. Democrats have won Miami but never by a lot. The counties where they do extremely well are Broward and Palm Beach."
Thanks for that brilliant piece of insight, Jim -- and shame on the Sentinel for lamely -- and lazily -- including it. For a much-better piece on the Jones pick, read Marc Caputo's article in the Herald.
-- Space-wise, the Sun-Sentinel's front page is dominated today on a story titled "Dollars and Sense." Under the headline are these words:
"They'd rather be cheap than cool. Old car? So what - there are no payments. Coupon clipping? You bet. They're also up on 401(k) plans and real estate. These 20-somethings buck the trend to stay fiscally fit."
Next to it is the lead story: "Why do we pay more for gas?"
Okay, both these stories are fine and I don't find any fault with the way Jamie Malernee and Joseph Mann did them. There's room in the newspaper for them, just not on the front page, which should be at least a vague reflection of what's going on in the world. The Sentinel's unseemly emphasis on consumerism, anchored by its disgusting Help Team, is getting more and more grotesque. It's like they want to nurture a culture of stupidity and ignorance, that they are appealing to the lowest common denominator, namely: What's in it for me?
But hey, the other front-page story, at least, was about an important world topic: The new race-based Survivor show. It linked to a Jicha story about the way the "raging controversy" about the show "may put the reality show back on top."
-- The Pulp gives irony-filled congratulations to teacher-killer Nathaniel Brazill. As Susan Spencer-Wendel reports in the Palm Beach Post, the boy who killed his teacher, Barry Grunow, on the last day of school has studied up on the legal side of things while in prison. And he won a chance to argue that his lawyer, Robert Udell, failed him in the original trial back in 2001. Hey, the kid, who is 19 now and was 13 when he pulled the trigger, is guilty of a particularly disturbing and heinous crime and should serve out his 30-year prison term, but at least he's showing some ingenuity. Too bad it had to be in prison.
