The Media Moment began like all good Photo Ops, as a perfect PR snapshot. Governor Bill Richardson, the former democratic presidential primary candidate, gave Barack Obama his endorsement amid flashing lights and bright and cherry smiles—with the Media there in full swing to capture it.
The pundits picked it up and gave Senator Obama a Media High Five as they analyzed what a great PR score this was for his campaign, so soon after the Reverend Wright debacle. Richardson said he was inspired by his stirring and moving speech on race, thus trying to turn the media page to the positive part of the Wright story.
The speech, along with the Richardson endorsement dominated headlines, with the significance of the endorsement playing prominently on the the Sunday morning political shows. However, Richardson himself became the story when he appeared on Fox to answer informal Clinton advisor, James Carville’s acid Judas comparison to him. His sharped tongued rejoinder was leveled at the Clinton campaign itself and it dominated the Sunday afternoon online headlines.
So the PR Plus that he gave the campaign on Friday, was already neutered by Sunday when he ostensibly spoke for the Obama campaign on Fox. The remark made by Carville was pointedly directed at him. Richardson’s response that members of the Clinton campaign felt entitled to the presidency was ultimately leveled at Senator Clinton herself.
There is sure to be continuing PR fallout from the Richardson and Carville remarks analyzed Sunday by CNN, The Washington Post, The LA Times political blog and TIME just to name a just a few. Monday, U.S. News and World Report gave an overview. The New York Times Politics blog covered it too, interestingly leaving out the entitlement part of the Richardson remark, which he, himself chose to do when questioned by Matt Lauer on Today.
With the next primary a month away, it will be interesting to see which PR misstep by either side will turn this media page.
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