John Hawkins of Right Wing News has announced that he has signed on to be “the point person in building up buzz for Duncan Hunter online.”
Last month, I named Hunter one of the People Who Won’t Get Elected President and when he announced his campaign last October I enumerated several reasons why I believed that to be the case but allowed, “To be fair, I’d say his chances are somewhat better than Kucinich’s.”
While I still think that’s all true and some of the things that attract Hawkins to Hunter have just the opposite effect on me, it’s a smart hire. Hawkins has excellent credibility in the social conservative blogosphere and, despite being relatively young, is one of its pioneers. As David All rightly notes, in the blogger relations game, “it’s not the email distribution list that matters – it’s the relationships on the other end of the line.”
Still, I think John’s being overly optimistic in thinking three months “plenty of time to give Hunter a huge boost in name recognition and prominence in the blogosphere.” Hunter’s passing similarities to Ronald Reagan notwithstanding, it’s going to take a while for Hunter fever to spread.
UPDATE: PJM in Tel Aviv thinks that “In the wake of Marcottegate . . . folks are probably digging through his archives at this very moment.” Almost certainly.
There are two key points in that regard. First, while Hawkins can be controversial, he’s not prone to vulgarity and is stylistically less rabid. Second, he’s not actually writing for Hunter but rather an independent contractor for a PR firm hired by the campaign. That certainly puts more of a buffer between blogger and candidate.
