Will Star Power make a win out of a lackluster Palaka bet?

Manzano took the plunge and for how much?

This political prognostination game is exciting. With Edu Manzano throwing his hat unto the vice presidential derby (for how much?), expect things to really get messy and possibly, bloody.

Manzano is being pitted against very tough political opponents, namely, Loren Legarda, the political courtesan of Nacionalista party presidential bet Manny Villar and of course, the billionaire’s son, Mar Roxas. Roxas is a shoo-in in this post mainly because he’s the only candidate who did not plunged into this game just because of money. Loren did. And Manzano surely did it as well.

Had Manzano choose to play safe and run for the Senate, he would have been one of the strongest contenders there. His survey ratings are nothing to sneeze at. He was then going for the eleventh and possibly going to the magic 8.

Manzano is no stranger to politics. He was once the vice mayor of Makati when Binay’s wife was then, the Jojo’s replacement. He lost to Binay when Manzano aspired for the mayoral post. He never recovered after that and just went back to hosting game shows.

But, would Manzano add pulling power to the sliding possibility of Teodoro? Would a top celebrity such as Manzano be able to inject star power in the aging machinery that is Lakas?

Try to look back what happened to another celebrity, Cesar Montano and even Richard Gomez and tell me what happened to their national campaigns? Both Montano’s and Gomez’s bid went haywire because star power alone does not convince people to go to the polls and write their names and support them. These stars’ mass bases are just a fraction of what’s needed to be able to post a win. They are just good for at least 1-2 million votes.

IN the case of Manzano, it is still doubtful if he has the pulling power for a win; or will he be able to transfer that charisma to Gilbert “Gibo” Teodoro. I bet stalwarts in Palaka thought that they must “humanize” Gibo and make him palatable to the bakya crowd, that’s why stars such as Edu and his erstwhile wife Vilma were considered. They did not consider one important element, missing in all their analyses—transference.

Will a Manzano endorsement of Teodoro erase dirty and sometimes bad impressions about Gibo? How many people will actually believe Manzano when he raises the hands of Gibo? Will Manzano be able to serve as Palaka’s “Mr. Zonrox” and erase people’s distrust against Gibo and the Arroyo administration?

Surveys are not very good sources of qualitative data. First, Manzano is NOT an Erap. An Erap endorsement especially to a local candidate is a sure winner. Manzano does not have such a record.

Now, if Palaka hopes to pull the youth vote out of the Liberal’s Noynoy or Chiz’s, they are mistaken. Manzano has never been positioned as a credible “youth endorser”. IN fact, what he is is a “youth-FUL” one.

Palaka may have erred on the side of confused political un-pragmatism when they did that decision.