I’m told that CNBC’s Jim Cramer, host of “Mad Money”, and I have a bit of a resemblance.<\/p>\n
So – if Thompson Building and Remodeling<\/a>, who’ve been sponsoring the Northern Alliance for most of this past five or six years, hires me to endorse their services, even though I don’t make any “Cramer” references whatsoever during the ads, is Thompson “impersonating Cramer?”<\/p>\n We’ll come back to that.<\/p>\n ———-<\/p>\n Jill Burcum isn’t\u00a0the worst, most in-the-bag-for-the-Democrats Strib <\/em>editorial writer. \u00a0That “distinction” floats at random between Lori Sturdevant, Jon Tevlin and most of the rest of the staff.<\/p>\n And I don’t mean that to sound as nasty as it probably does. \u00a0If more of the Strib’s <\/em>editorial writers were in Burcum’s “I’m a DFLer, but I don’t want to come across like an obvious <\/em>house shill” weight class, the Strib<\/em>\u00a0and its editorial would be less a laughingstock.<\/p>\n Still, priorities are priorities. \u00a0Burcum takes umbrage, on behalf of Morgan Freeman, at the latest ad for Sheila Harsdorf in her battle for the Wisconsin Senate in the district just across the St. Croix from the Metro against \u00a0Shelly “WEEEEEEEEEEEEEE BLEEEEEEEEEEEEEEED UNIOOOOOOOOOOOOOOON<\/a>” Moore.<\/p>\n The latest attack ad on Wisconsin state Senate candidate Shelly Moore instantly prompts this question: How’d they get actor Morgan Freeman to do the voiceover?<\/p>\n The reality is that it’s not Freeman, whose authoritative voice made him a logical choice to play God in the hit film “Bruce Almighty” a few years back. Instead, the slippery group funding the ad found somebody who sounds just like Freeman.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n So what does Burcum suggest? \u00a0That established voice-over guys be able to trademark the timbre and tone of their voices, so nobody else can sound <\/em>like them?<\/p>\n Because Burcum sounds serious:<\/p>\n The [organization funding the spots’]<\/em>\u00a0latest effort is nothing less than a fake celebrity endorsement of Moore’s opponent, Republican Sheila Harsdorf, in the recall election taking place just across the border.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n Baloney. \u00a0The guy’s voice sounds like Morgan Freeman, in the same way that I look like Jim Cramer. \u00a0Did he say “I”m Morgan Freeman?” \u00a0No. \u00a0Does his voice say “I’m detached and authoritative, like Morgan Freeman’s?” \u00a0Sure. \u00a0Is it of any legal or ethical weight? \u00a0If it is, then everyone with a passing resemblance to a celebrity who swerves into the public eye in any way loses their stock in trade.<\/p>\n