Posted on 01/20/2007 2:32:19 PM PST by MindBender26
As many FReepers know, Im spent many years in TV network news. I polled old friends and acquaintances today and with one exception, all agreed that Hillary Clintons announcement today that she is running for President (yawn) is a HUGE misstep.
First, she did it at a time guaranteed to get her minimum television exposure. The Saturday HUT (Homes Using Television) numbers are miniscule. When was the last time the Saturday Noon News was a must see for anyone?
In addition, anyone watching TV today or tomorrow is probably a man and he is tuned into sports. Not Hillarys target audience!
She should have announced on 4:00 P.M on Thursday, after appearing earlier in the day on GMA, Today, CBSMN, and especially The View to coyly announce that she just might have something importance to announce soon.
By announcing at 4:00 on a Thursday, she would have been the lead story on all that evenings newscasts. Thursday is often the second highest rated show of the week. Then she would have been topic #1 that night and all day Friday. She could have been back on the AM shows and The View on Friday, perhaps even a quick Oprah appearance. Friday nights national news shows would have been all reaction stories, a visit to her hometown, yada yada yada, etc. She would have owned 36 hours of prime TV.
As it is, she chose the absolutely worst time. The Sunday AM shows will be all over it, but no undecided voters watch those shows. She will get no mojo or movement from them. By Monday, its old news.
Next her method of announcement. She posted it as a statement on her website.
Idiotic.
She could have gathered 2000 screaming, sigh waving supporters on the Capitol steps, balloons, a band, etc. Could have been a huge hoop de do! CNN, FNC and others would have covered it live, etc. As it was, nothing! In the words of one senior editor, She mailed it in!
Next, she has based her campaign on Stopping Bush. Thats got about 30 days worth of legs. In addition, everything she says for the next 20 months will be seen as political. She just threw away any chance she had of being seen as a healer or statesman like. Politically, she just painted a huge target on her back. Every time she says word one on any issue, an independent third party spokesperson can rake her over the coals, and the Republicans can stay above it all.
Finally, everyone sees it for what it is. She panicked over Obama.
He is a 60 day flash in the pan, this years Weasley Clark or Howard Dean. America is not about to elect a Black, Muslim-trained, admitted cocaine-using man President, no matter how good he looks on TV this month.
The media loves him . this month. The media that loves him now will fill the air with investigative stories about him next month. By April at the latest, he will be very old news
Bottom line on that issue; Hillary stood eye to eye against a totally non-electable presidential candidate . from her own party . and she blinked!
Mark Halperin at ABC is gushing over her announcement, but everyone else is saying Huh?
Another said, "She has been planning this for 20 or 30 years, and this is her best shot!?!?" "What's next, shooting Santa Claus on Christmas Eve?"
Try Sunday morning.
Perhaps her own calculation indicated to her a stealth initiation of her campaign.
So in the end, it seems to me, her major boo-boo unfortunately, won't hurt her prez chances that much.
I wonder how the peoples of New York feel about her now?
She hasn't even spent a full month in her 2nd term as Senator, and she is already making plans for her next gig.
[No surprise, of course.]
The Sunday news shows will be broadcast whatever the weather might be.
Maybe she doesn't want anyone to notice. As soon as she is officially a candidate, the news shows are going to want her and she will have to take positions, and she's going to be attacked as the front-runner. Would have been better for her if she could have waited until this time next year.
Is this a new coinage to combine 'aggressive' and 'ignorant'? It is interesting.
This is EXACTLY what she wants.
I've had this theory even since the Oboomlet started. Obama is there to take the attention off of Hillary. She'd love to parachute into the primaries, but she has to declare now in order to start raising money.
For the next few months, she'll be the only candidate looking NOT to get media attention.
She doesn't want to do anything unscripted and she'll desperately avoid any IA or NH retail campaigning.
Aha! You see, Bush's spirit will live on in the WH. He is there, I tell ya, THERE!! (Foams at mouth)
Very interesting thread this morning speculating on when her presentation might have been taped...check the spring/summer foliage outside the window.
Uh... has anyone told you that a presidential term is four years, not six?
I think everyone on this board knows why she didn't announce it publicly. (Thank God, for FR and the DC Chapter)
Hillary will get a free positive drumbeat from the networks from now until the day she tells them to stop, now that she has declared.
Timing, in this case, matters not at all.
I wonder how many of their 300,000 viewers were watching.>>>>>>
Five or six, give or take a couple.
January 20 is Inauguration Day in the USA. The date is probably for a movie she has planned. gag
LOL. The first '08 presidential primary debate, organized in part by the South Carolina Democratic Party, is set for 4/26/07 at South Carolina State University in Orangeburg, SC. MSNBC will offer exclusive live coverage from 7-8:30 p.m. (ET), as well as stream it on MSNBC.com. SC NBC affiliates will pick up the coverage. Details about the format and participants will come at a later date.
So she should run it as an ad during the Superbowl?
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