Tuesday, May 15, 2007

FRED THOMPSON

Will the Thompson Video Be Bigger Than Tonight's Debate?

I thought this comment by Bob Krumm — "Thompson’s reponse to Moore will have a much greater impact on the presidential campaign than anything said at this little shindig tonight. It’ll be seen by many more people too" — was an exaggeration, a bit of blogospheric triumphalism. Now I'm not so sure. As of 7:45 p.m. EST, the video has 156,069 views. Obviously, plenty of those are repeat viewers. But that's a good run in less than eight hours.

MSNBC’s first Democratic debate had 2.26 million viewers; their GOP debate had 1.76 million viewers. (Reasons for the lower viewers for the GOP? 1. Most of America was glued to their web-browsers for my live-blogging. 2. Pre-game hosted by Keith Olbermann, who eight nights earlier had "accused Rudolph Giuliani of using the language of Osama bin Laden with "the same chilling nonchalance of the madman." 3. It was hosted by Chris Matthews. 4. Many Americans actually have lives.)

Anyway, it will be interesting to see what gets greater buzz in the coming days. In a way, if every GOP candidate on stage tonight plays it safe, a potential candidate bit- er, slapping around Michael Moore might actually spur more discussion in GOP circles.

05/15 07:57 PMShare