A Trumpish Tweet in Georgia’s GOP runoff for governor

Likewise, Cagle has denounced Kemp for — back in 2015 – breathing the same air as John Kasich, when the Ohio governor made his own presidential campaign tour of Sandy Springs. Kasich is now a Trump critic and thus persona non grata within GOP circles.

So far, the accusations have had the advantage of originality. Feel free to suspect plagiarism when Candidate A erupts with: “Verily, I say unto thee, that this night, before the cock crow, Candidate B shalt deny Trump thrice.”

But in fact, the GOP runoff for governor has become even more Trumpish than that.

Last Monday, at 2:14 p.m., Judd Apatow exercised his Twitter thumbs and First Amendment rights to condemn Donald Trump as a racist Nazi who kidnaps children for political gain. That's a condensed version of his message, but you get the point. (Twitter never should have strayed from that 140-character limit.)

I didn't know who Judd Apatow is, and I'm willing to bet that you still don't. Research indicates he's a filmmaker whose oeuvre includes "The 40-year-old Virgin" and "Anchorman 2."

Fast-forward to Tuesday, nearly 24 hours later. In an impromptu display of outrage, the following Twitter message was posted under Casey Cagle's name:

Actually, the Twitter post was the work of Cagle’s staff — as most such messages are. To be fair, I asked the same question of Kemp’s campaign. Spokesman Ryan Mahoney said he writes all of Kemp’s Twitter messages. “One hundred percent. That’s why they’re so damned good,” he said.

That Tuesday message from Cagle’s Twitter account was also damned good, in its own fashion. It was an impressive mimicry of a Tweet from Donald Trump, down to the personal insult of Apatow. “Forever boycotting” was a well-crafted touch of excess.

The result was Trump-worthy. Local media focused on the threat that Cagle now posed to Georgia’s new film industry, one of the brightest spots in the state’s economy — thanks to Hollywood-friendly tax incentives enacted in 2008. We quickly learned that “Anchorman 2,” terrible or not, was shot in Atlanta.

Credit: Gemma LaMana

Credit: Gemma LaMana

Gov. Nathan Deal warned of trouble ahead. "The film industry should be very cautious of trying to tell Georgia what its social policies should be. They will get reactions if they go too far," Deal advised. "And likewise, the state of Georgia should be very cautious telling them what their social policies should be."

The national press, too, jumped on the lieutenant governor's Tweet, because — well, apparently Apatow really is someone of note. And culture wars are what we do now.

Which left the Kemp campaign to wonder, somewhat impotently, at the selective nature of Cagle’s outrage. Kemp noted that his rival has personally palled around with celebrities — Usher and Ludacris were provided as examples — who have dissed our president. But Cagle isn’t boycotting them.

And there remains this unanswered question: What was Judd Apatow doing on Casey Cagle’s Twitter feed in the first place?

To answer that and more, examine the arc of Cagle's campaign for governor. After Feb. 26, Cagle was known as the fellow who slapped Delta Air Lines around for putting air between itself and the National Rifle Association in the wake of the high school massacre in Parkland, Fla.

A well-written Tweet promising to kill a sales tax break on jet fuel put Cagle on the national stage for several days. Which now sounds familiar, doesn’t it?

But after June 7, we were handed another definition of Cagle. He became the GOP frontrunner who was secretly recorded by a defeated primary rival, Clay Tippins. The lieutenant governor was caught explaining why he had supported an education measure during the legislative session that just ended, even though he knew the bill was "bad policy."

“It ain’t about public policy. It’s about (expletive) politics. There’s a group that was getting ready to put $3 million behind Hunter Hill,” Cagle could be heard saying. Even Cagle’s hometown newspaper, The Gainesville Times, declared itself embarrassed.

But Donald Trump has shown us all how to escape any trap created by our own words. You pick a fight in another venue.

Before I wrote this, I opened a clean window on my browser and Googled the words “casey cagle.” The first item to pop up: Cagle’s proposed boycott of Apatow’s movies. Links to stories about a “secret recording” had been pushed far down – and nearly off the first page of search results.

A tech-savvy Democrat who I called did the same search and concluded that there was no evidence that the Cagle campaign had artificially toyed with Google’s search algorithms — which is something that can be done, for a fee.

That Tweet from the Cagle campaign was good ol’ fashioned, “ooh, shiney” politics, as updated by Trump in the internet era.

Todd Rehm is a Republican political consultant and the editor of Georgiapol.com. He’s adept at social media, too — and the art of establishing and preserving your chosen online identity.

“The ability to manage stuff like that is part of any competent digital firm’s toolbox. Part of it is pushing it down. Part of it is pushing more juicy stuff out there to talk about,” he said.

And Cagle’s success at changing an uncomfortable subject? “It may have been luck, it may have been intentional. But I do think that’s something you’re going to see a lot more of,” Rehm said.

So keep your eyes wide open, social media users. As I finish this late Thursday afternoon, Cagle has again begun channeling President Trump on Twitter:

Excuse me while I go track down a copy of “Anchorman 2.” I have a thing for terrible movies made in Atlanta.