by WonkoKevin
Here’s one of my faves of the week, thanks to Hot Air for highlighting… “In his new book, “The Undecided Voter’s Guide to the Next President,” Time magazine editor-at-large Mark Halperin asked the leading presidential candidates whom they’d put in their Cabinet. Most refused, except for Giuliani, who gave one name: Joe Torre.” How about it–Torre as U.N. Ambassador?
by WonkoKevin
Fred Thompson made his debut in the Michigan debate last night and came out a winner, according to both general consensus and Wonkosphere buzz share. Conservative bloggers will be chomping on the Chris Matthews “slapdown” for a couple of weeks, and Thompson had the biggest post-debate bump in buzz share, at +4%. Rudy Giuliani got a +3% bump in buzz share, followed by Mitt Romney (+2%) and Tom Tancredo (+2%). The big loser was Ron Paul, whose buzz share plunged -14%. Apparently Paul supporters went stealth last night, as they did not find much to cheer about last night.
by WonkoKevin
Rudy Giuliani came in second place amongst Republicans in Wonkosphere buzz share yesterday with 22% from conservative bloggers; Ron Paul was in first place at 34%. Giuliani had two nice stories yesterday that made the rounds. First, check out these maps (we love maps!) at Politico, from the Giuliani campaign; their numbers show Clinton only cornering 18 electoral votes for sure against Giuliani, while against McCain, Thompson, and Romney, she is expected to have many more states automatically in the win column. The Influence Peddler discusses a piece in Roll Call which argues that Giuliani would have the best coattails of all the Republican candidates.
by WonkoKevin
Rudy Giuliani was second to Hillary Clinton in Wonkosphere buzz share yesterday, getting attention from both conservative and liberal bloggers. The buzz source was a column by Jonathan Martin at Politico which reports on a recent meeting of social conservatives discussing the possibility of Republicans nominating a pro-abortion candidate: “In the first major sign of social conservative anxiety that Rudy Giuliani will be the Republican presidential nominee next year, a group of Christian right leaders unanimously backed a resolution Saturday indicating a willingness to back a third-party candidate should a pro-choice candidate win the GOP nomination. The move came in a private meeting among top members of the Council for National Policy (CNP), a secretive coalition of prominent Christian conservatives, gathered for a conference in Salt Lake City. The resolution stated, “If the Republican Party nominates a pro-abortion candidate, we will consider running a third-party candidate,” and was voted on by such leaders of the conservative movement as Focus on the Family founder James Dobson, direct mail pioneer Richard Viguerie, the Family Research Council’s Tony Perkins and Leadership Institute founder Morton Blackwell.”
by WonkoKevin
Ron Paul led all Republicans in Wonkosphere buzz share one day following Tavis Smiley’s PBS All American Presidential Forums. Paul’s buzz share amongst conservative bloggers increased from 14% to 21%, beating out Rudy Giuliani who fell below 20% buzz share for the first time in ten days. The forum was notable for its empty podia–the front runners were not there, which has peeved off more than a few conservatives. Bloggers tended to concede the debate to either Paul or Mike Huckabee, who got a 2% increase in buzz share from the event. Sam Brownback, Tom Tancredo, and Alan Keyes also has buzz share increases in the 2-3% range… The biggest “loser” of the event? Mitt Romney. Romney’s buzz share plummeted from 21% to 11%… For more discussion, Richard Rhodes has provided a nice analysis of the debate’s content.
by WonkoKevin
We know that to some extent buzz share in Wonkosphere is a zero sum game–if bloggers are talking about candidate X they’re less likely to also be talking about candidate Y. If we go back to June and examine buzz share amongst conservative bloggers, Mike Huckabee appears to be at the center of this complex dynamic of one candidate’s buzz eating into another’s.
by WonkoKevin
Four out of the top 5 positions in Wonkosphere buzz share were held by Republican today. Amongst conservative bloggers, Ron Paul, Rudy Giuliani, Fred Thompson, and Mitt Romney were all at about 20% buzz share. The Detroit Free Press reports that Ron Paul supporters arrived en masse to the state’s biennial Republican Party convention. Thompson supporters point to three polls showing Fred tied or leading in three early states (Michigan, South Carolina, and Florida), and were enthusiastic about his appearance at the NRA; conversely, conservative bloggers were all over Giuliani’s comments at the same event. Mitt Romney, who earlier this week released a lengthy policy statement, continues to focus on mass communications with a letter to Repubicans talking about “inflection points”.
by WonkoKevin
Rudy Giuliani took over the lead in Wonkosphere buzz share yesterday, knocking Hillary Clinton out of first place for the first time in several weeks. Giuliani had about 22% buzz share, including 30% of the Republican buzz from conservative bloggers and a whopping 60% of the attention to Republicans by liberal bloggers. There’s been a big shift however in the nature of Giuliani’s buzz. Whereas his buzz was all very positive from conservative bloggers during the summer, over the last two weeks the tone has been muc more negative. Both conservatives and liberals were questioning Giuliani’s commitment to gun owners after his visit to the NRA.
by WonkoKevin
Hillary Clinton dominated all other candidates yesterday with 36% buzz share in Wonkosphere. While conservative bloggers continued to discuss Rudy Giuliani’s ad yesterday criticizing her connection to the Petraeus ad (Giuliani has a new accompanying video), liberal bloggers were all chatting about Wes Clark’s endorsement of Clinton, “She will be a great leader for the United States of America and a great commander in chief for the men and women in uniform”. Clark’s endorsement came at a perfect time–it appears to have driven down MSM attention to the MoveOn storyline. Could a Clark VP be in the works?
by WonkoKevin
Does our 9-11 narrative include a another path through New York in 2008? Will the First Lady before 9-11 face-off with one of the strongest from 9-11? If so, then perhaps we saw the first direct blow of the bout, with Rudy taking the opportunity to throw the first jab. Rudy Guiliani’s full-page ad attacking Hillary Clinton’s defense of MoveOn.org’s own ad was the talk of Wonkosphere yesterday.
