This was, of course, an election filled with gaffes–and Chris Matthews (aka Tweety Bird) opened Hardball last night by apologizing (and apologizing, and apologizing) for saying he was “glad” that superstorm Sandy hit, thereby shedding light on Obama’s ability to lead in a crisis while crossing party lines and working constructively with Republicans like N.J. Governor Chris Christie. Matthews obviously wasn’t celebrating the fact that many lost their homes (and in some cases their lives) to the benefit of Obama’s campaign, but it was a dumb thing to say.

Matthews quickly realized that fact and began Wednesday’s show by saying, “I said something terrible…I said something not just stupid but wrong”. During his long-winded but genuine apology, he also refrained from blaming fatigue for his lapse in judgement: continued…

New Career Opportunities Daily: The best jobs in media.

His state was hardest hit by Hurricane Sandy, and we’d say it’s safe to assume he hasn’t gotten much sleep over the past three or four days: You may have watched him berate the mayor of Atlantic City for encouraging residents to stay at city shelters despite an earlier evacuation order; you may have heard him uncharacteristically praise President Obama’s storm response as “outstanding”; you may have seen footage of him together with the President this afternoon as the two surveyed the storm’s damage by helicopter.

This was all well and good, but today marks a far greater achievement for the Governor: he was won the week’s “best PR stunt posing as a government order” contest by officially postponing Halloween.

Its just not safe yet to be out trick-or- treating tonight, so Halloween has officially been postponed until Monday.

— Governor Christie (@GovChristie) October 31, 2012

What does this mean, exactly? Let’s read the end of the official release, complete with charmingly arcane language:

continued…

New Career Opportunities Daily: The best jobs in media.

Their jobs are especially important at a time like this: Hurricane Sandy is about to slam into New Jersey, and its aftermath won’t be pretty: Governor Chris Christie stopped begging Bruce Springsteen to hang out with him long enough to tell residents that they should prepare to go without power for 7-10 days, adding (with his trademark understatement), “Don’t be stupid, get out.”

OK, we get it: this is a big deal. The NWS knows that people don’t generally like to pack up and flee their homes, and we don’t doubt that some hard-headed New Jersey residents will stay put no matter what. Still, we wonder whether the tone of the service’s Sunday evening message was completely appropriate. Here’s the passage that raised some eyebrows (bold text ours, all caps theirs):

2. IF YOU ARE RELUCTANT TO EVACUATE, AND YOU KNOW SOMEONE WHO RODE OUT THE `62 STORM ON THE BARRIER ISLANDS, ASK THEM IF THEY COULD DO IT AGAIN.

3. IF YOU ARE RELUCTANT, THINK ABOUT YOUR LOVED ONES, THINK ABOUT THE EMERGENCY RESPONDERS WHO WILL BE UNABLE TO REACH YOU WHEN YOU MAKE THE PANICKED PHONE CALL TO BE RESCUED, THINK ABOUT THE RESCUE/RECOVERY TEAMS WHO WILL RESCUE YOU IF YOU ARE INJURED OR RECOVER YOUR REMAINS IF YOU DO NOT SURVIVE.

Well, that was certainly blunt. Since Buzzfeed won’t tell us whether we should be outraged by this insensitive gut punch, we’re stuck between freaking out and following New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg‘s more measured suggestion:

“Sit back, have a sandwich from the fridge, watch television” – Mayor Bloomberg

— ben walsh (@BenDWalsh) October 29, 2012

We’ll get back to you when we figure it out.

New Career Opportunities Daily: The best jobs in media.

The hairline-challenged Stephen Sweeney, who just happens to be a huge Packers fan despite the fact that he lives, works and serves in Jersey, released a written statement today announcing his plans to introduce a bill that would ban “replacement officials” from calling any kind of professional sports contest in his state—a state that serves as home to both the New York Giants and the New York Jets (we still can’t get over that one—just give Jersey the Jets and let New York keep the Giants already! Everybody likes alliteration!).

Sweeney unconvincingly tried to tie the scandal to the issue of players’ health, writing that “Whether the sport is football, soccer or baseball, when referees don’t know how to properly enforce the rules, there is a real chance for unnecessary and serious injury.”

Hmm…We’re not quite sure where he was going there.

continued…

New Career Opportunities Daily: The best jobs in media.

“America’s Mayor” himself Rudy Giuliani took the opportunity to express his frustration, and after reading the article quite a few of us felt like the museum might continue to embarrass the states of New York and New Jersey for many years to come.

Well, today brings news that Michael Bloomberg, Chris Christie, Andrew Cuomo and their respective organizations have reached an agreement after more than a year of total inactivity. How convenient that they happened to strike a deal on the anniversary of the event itself! You might call it a PR coup—or an example of the timeless power of peer pressure.

continued…

New Career Opportunities Daily: The best jobs in media.

Donald Trump

Trump showcased his crude PR savvy yet again yesterday by announcing, via his Twitter feed, that he is planning a “big surprise” for the upcoming Republican National Convention. And of course this tweet was catnip for poli-bloggers. Sounds a little fishy–everybody already knows about Chris Christie.

Vanity Fair’s Juli Weiner thinks Trump’s bombshell might involve scissors, glitter, pipe cleaners and macaroni (we always preferred the star-shaped pasta). And Donald, if you’re listening, we feel like Newt Gingrich would make a great addition to the next season of Celebrity Apprentice. He can do his usual routine: condescend to everyone and get cheers for it.

So what do you think? Does The Donald have anything interesting up his sleeve, or is this “announcement” more of the usual smoke and mirrors?

New Career Opportunities Daily: The best jobs in media.

Chris Christie has reaffirmed, reconfirmed, said again, and stated one more time that he’s not running for President of the U.S. And, yes, yes, he can confirm that he’s also overweight.

In a lengthy press conference that had tweeters wondering how much longer it would continue, Christie said, he would stick with New Jersey and his job as Governor.

“For me the answer was never anything but no,” he also said. Which is what we thought he had been saying all this time. Because it turns out he was.

Also, when asked about all the jokes about his weight, he said all he asked was that the jokes be funny. In a very human and calm response, he said,” you gotta know who you are” and that he’s “fair game” as a public figure.

[clip via Politico]

New Career Opportunities Daily: The best jobs in media.

Our friends at Inside Facebook have just launched the 2012 Election Tracker, and New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie has added the most new fans today (743) bringing his total to 49,128 likes. AllFacebook has a breakdown of the fan efforts to get Christie into the race despite his repeated and very strong assertions that he will not.

And Godfather’s Pizza CEO Herman Cain, after seeming to drop out of the race, has made a comeback, first by winning the weekend Florida straw poll then by coming in third behind Perry and Romney in a Fox News poll released yesterday.

According to the Election Tracker, Cain is third in Facebook fans among the Republican candidates (behind Romney and Bachmann, who has fallen out of a favored position) and he’s seen a spike in “likes” since the weekend.

Fox blames “elites” in the Republican party for the reported dissatisfaction with the candidates. There’s still plenty of time to flush it all out.

New Career Opportunities Daily: The best jobs in media.

Reuters is planning on providing lots of coverage of the World Economic Forum in Davos. There will be a microsite, blog, live Twitter feed (@Reuters_Davos), and a daily broadcast.

New Jersey’s Gov. Chris Christie says he turned down the opportunity to give the Republican response to tomorrow’s State of the Union address. Rep. Paul Ryan (WI) will deliver the speech instead.

Fashion video frenzy! The latest clip (below) comes from Prada.

New Career Opportunities Daily: The best jobs in media.

Ever since news hit that Facebook‘s Mark Zuckerberg would be donating $100 million to the Newark school system, the chatter about how Zuckerberg’s image would benefit has been deafening. Technorati wrote last week that Facebook PR had kicked into high gear with the upcoming premiere of The Social Network. EWeek wrote also about the timing of the announcement given the new film. And Mashable noted that the donation could be an effort to counteract Zuckerberg’s appearance on the Forbes 400.

Whatever the PR implications for Zuckerberg, it’s nice to know that the publicity surrounding the announcement is actually doing good for the Newark school system.

Mayor Cory Booker announced today that he’d secured $40 million of the total needed to match the $100 million grant. Mayor Booker, New Jersey State Governor Chris Christie, and Zuckerberg were meant to appear on NBC today to talk further, but the interview was interrupted by the weather.

“I am so grateful that so many are stepping forward after Mark Zuckerberg’s announcement to answer our call to action and share our commitment in the limitless potential of Newark’s students,” Mayor Booker said  in an e-mail.

Pershing Square Capital Management has pledged $25 million to the matching gift.

[Image: Saed Hindash, The Star-Ledger]

New Career Opportunities Daily: The best jobs in media.

Michael Kempner has served as CEO of MWW Group since its founding in 1986. As an IPG (NYSE: IPG) owned shop, it is the 11th largest public relations agency in the U.S.

PRNewser caught up with Kempner this week to get his take on the market for PR services in 2010 — “You can’t hide in this market. You’re either really good or you’re not.” — his work for the Democratic Party — “The president needs to tie all of his programs together into a unified theme.” — and how he would grade Toyota’s crisis communications strategy thus far — “I would grade them a D.”

What’s your take on the market for PR so far in 2010?

I’m actually in a good mood. I felt good about 2009, actually. It wasn’t the easiest year, but the team rallied together. The team proved what I thought they would prove:

continued…

New Career Opportunities Daily: The best jobs in media.

Corzine press secretary Elisabeth Smith‘s last Twitter update states, “Lots o polling. All gonna come down to turnout tomorrow.” Christie spokeswoman Maria Comella posted this morning, “Last day of the bus tour. New polls out today show Chris with lead, but this is still a close race.”

In the Virginia race, McDonnell press secretary Taylor Thornley‘s last tweet is from 10/27, where she highlighted favorable polling results for her candidate. Deeds Communications Director Jared Leopold‘s feed is heavy on re-tweets, the last of which is a picture of a campaign stop in Hampton Roads.

At a White House press briefing last week, White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs, when asked about the governor’s races, said, “I don’t think they portend a lot.” However, President Obama spent yesterday at two major Corzine rallies in Newark and Camden, New Jersey. New Jersey is the closer race as the Quinnipiac poll this morning shows it is in a “statistical tie.”

New Career Opportunities Daily: The best jobs in media.