Everybody got so kerfluffled by Rick Perry’s announcement that he was going to announce his candidacy for president…

13 Aug, 2011 by TrogloPundit

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…but, seriously, doesn’t every candidate do that? I know I’m a little late with this since Perry made the announcement today, but it’s been swirling around in my head so I’m gonna get a post about it.

Just the other day, Joe Garofoli wrote:

Dude just announced that he’s GOING to announce that he’s going to run for prez…and everybody’s trying to figure out how to respond. Announce that he’s going to announce…it doesn’t get more meta than that.

“It doesn’t get more meta than that?” Oh, please. You know what Perry should have done? He should have used his big announcement to announce an exploratory committee. If everybody was having so much trouble figuring out “how to respond” already, imagine the panic that would have caused!

Quick: name me one time — just one time — a candidate has announced an exploratory committee and then has decided not to run. Maybe there’s an example out there. I’m not aware of it.

That’s because the exploratory committee is, basically, an announcement about an announcement. It’s a way to get more press. Free media! It gets your name on the evening news. It gets people talking about you. It gets people discussing you as a candidate for president.

Kind of the way people were already talking about…Rick Perry.

Wow, he just got in the race, and he’s missed an opportunity already.

And one more thing: somebody please gag me with this “Perry disrespects Iowans with his announcement timing” storyline. You know what that is? That’s more free media! It’s free media about his announcement (or about his announcement about his announcement) and it’s free media about a nothing “controversy” argument with some Iowans. http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0811/61140.html

That’s like double bonus free media.

Because if there’s one thing that’ll hurt a candidate in the rest of the country, it’s Iowa getting mad that their meaningless 15-months-early straw poll might get one-upped somehow.

(Posted by The TrogloPundit)