Bill Richardson’s big video
by WonkoKevin
A few days ago I complained that Bill Richardson was the anti-Ron Paul, having little internet presence relative to his poll numbers. Perhaps Richardson has found his medium however in video. Yesterday, the liberal blogosphere responded very positively to Richardson’s video entitled “No Troops Left Behind,” in which he explains the difference between his Iraq stance and the other Democratic candidates. Richardson’s buzz share amongst liberal bloggers rose to 12% yesterday in Wonkosphere.
Richardson has not seemed to score much enthusiasm with his debate appearances or out on the stump, so the highly effective video was a winner in three significant ways.
First, by differentiating himself from others on Iraq–namely, that he would leave no “residual forces” or permanent bases” in Iraq– he appealed to strong sentiments inside the liberal blogosphere and finally made a “policy statement” that caught their attention. The video does a good job articulating how the other candidates support residual forces (althugh I noticed he left out Dennis Kucinich). Second, by using the video medium he was able to diffuse his message to a broader audience without possible reinterpretation or editing by MSM. Third, towards the end of the video, he used talking wonks from the liberal blogosphere, Christina Siun O’Connell of Firedoglake and Chris Bowers and Matt Stoller of Open Left. In doing so perhaps he has created a base of liberal attention in the blogosphere that can propel him into the Pack of Three. As I mentioned before, if Gore doesn’t run, Richardson is by far best positioned amongst the second tier to really make a run for it.
September 27th, 2007 at 6:43 am
[…] other four. Richardson and Kucinich have been most specific on this issue, and Bill Richardson scored points yesterday with a video about withdrawal. But with one or two exceptions, I thought Richardson did not do […]