Ever since Jim Webb said last fall that he was “seriously looking” into running for president, the political media has anticipated—or at least speculated about—whether he’d indeed seek the Democratic nomination. But unlike every other candidate thus far, the former senator from Virginia never annonced when he'd announce his decision: He simply announced it.
JIM WEBB ANNOUNCES CANDIDACY FOR PRESIDENT http://www.webb2016.com/jim-webb-announces-candidacy-for-president/ ... -Staff pic.twitter.com/zdi7vM5YvQ
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jimwebbusa
On the one hand, how refreshing! We have had enough pomp and circumstance for one presidential-announcement season.
On the other hand, what is he thinking? He announced it at 2:08 p.m. on the day before the Fourth of July weekend. The afternoon before a three-day weekend, as everyone in media knows, is when people of note “dump” unflattering news—the hope being that the media will miss it, or that, even if the news is reported, there will be no one online to read about it.
In other words, does Webb even want anyone to know he’s running for president?
Announcing at this hour, on this day, would suggest either that his heart’s not truly in it—after all, there are other reasons to run for president than actually trying to become president—or that his campaign strategists are inept.
His website suggests the latter. The link in the above tweet directs to Webb’s full announcement, in all its poorly formatted glory:
But as of publication time, if you try to navigate to the full announcement from the homepage by clicking “read more,” you get the following error message. Same goes for his events page.
Perhaps the media wasn’t alone in being unprepared for this announcement.