Gov. Tim Pawlenty held a news conference Thursday afternoon at Bobby & Steve's Auto World in Bloomington to discuss Sen. John McCain's energy policy. Next week, Commerce Secretary Carlos Gutierrez is to appear with Pawlenty and U.S. Sen. Amy Klobuchar at a Best Buy to address digital TV conversion.
Last week, I noted John McCain's formation of small business advisory groups around the U.S. The focus of that post was how the McCain campaign is affiliating with small business in ways that are disingenuous — that is, using them as a sympathetic backdrop as he makes misleading claims and advocates policies that won't necessarily help small business or job growth.
Yesterday, we got a glimpse of what is in it for these businesses.
The owner of Bobby & Steve's is one of the McCain campaign's Minnesota advisors. So the governor and McCain campaign get a picturesque setting for a bit of snooze news, and the "advisor" gets a little promo for his business.
Meanwhile, in a bi-partisan appearance, the Commerce Secretary will stage his press conference at a store owned by a global Minnesota corporation. Sen. Klobuchar will be there in a subtextual display of Democratic support for big business.
Whatever you think about the image making, this provides welcome relief from those blatant backdrop banners.
