Experts divided over Ford’s appearance on Kimmel show

PR and political experts were divided on whether Rob Ford’s guest appearance on the Jimmy Kimmel show hurt the mayor.

Kimmel, who has mocked Ford on his show since the crack video scandal broke last fall, grilled the mayor during his 15-minute appearance. The late night talk show host also got Ford to watch some of his most notorious and embarrassing moments caught on video, including his Steak Queen rant and another one where a clearly agitated Ford threatens someone.

Jim Warren, who was former mayor Mel Lastman’s deputy chief of staff, said he watched Ford on the Jimmy Kimmel Live show late Monday and then had to watch it again on Tuesday morning just to make sure it really happened.

“I think it hurts him with his core voters,” Warren said, adding Ford is stuck in a “hamster wheel of lies” and that people are getting tired of it.

Warren said Ford is not the everyday, regular man that he’s professes to be given that he’s in Los Angeles. The images of Ford ”running around in warm weather” in Hollywood while Torontonians are “freezing their butts off” run contrary to Ford’s comments on the show that he’s a “normal, average, hard-working politician.”

Warren said he’s a “son of privilege,” referring to the Ford family business, Deco Labels and Tags.

Political analyst Nelson Wiseman thought the Ford segment was funny but that he was brought on the Kimmel show to be a punching bag.

“The whole thing pokes fun at him and he was set up for it and I think he recognized [that] within a few seconds,” he said. “The guy is a clown. He’s treated as a clown.”

Wiseman said he can’t see it helping Ford, who is trying to get re-elected on Oct. 27, pick up any votes.

But one PR expert Anita Verma said the appearance will help Ford, who has a base of Ford Nation supporters.

“He’s on the international stage in a way that no other Canadian politician in his position really has,” she said. “So he could be using this as a way to get that strategy going, get the feedback [and] get the press.”

She said his appearance on the Kimmel show also “gave another humanizing factor to the antics that really have been all over the media about him.”

Both Verma and Warren said Ford would be a great story if he took a leave of absence and worked out his personal problems.

“We all love a good redemption story,” Verma said.

On Tuesday, the mayor defended his guest appearance, saying, “Was it a tough interview? Sure it was. But he has a job to do. That’s his job… But I held my own. I got my message out.”

Asked by Toronto reporters if there were any questions that caught him off guard, Ford said no.

“If you can survive the Toronto media, you can survive anything,” he said. “That was a walk in the park compared to you guys.”