If you tuned into the 24 hour news channels this weekend, you saw more of the wall-to-wall coverage, in-depth speculation and general sensationalizing of the Casey Anthony trial. But you probably missed the announcement by Representative Thaddeus McCotter (R-Michigan) that he is officially running for president.

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Granted the GOP field is rather crowded and one more candidate seeking the party's nomination may not be big news. But on a holiday weekend when the only other story is the courtroom saga in Florida, it would seem reasonable that the media would give a sitting member of Congress some attention; at least as much coverage as they gave President Obama's former Ambassador to China Jon Huntsman when he recently announced his candidacy.

But the McCotter announcement garnered little attention from the media and it's doubtful his campaign will either unless the candidate finds a way to stand out from the crowd. In his announcement at the Freedom Festival in Whitmore Lake, Michigan on Saturday; Representative McCotter declared "Through your hard work and through your principled determination to bequeath to your children a better America, we will restructure the government. While it is a hard road ahead, we will have better days and we will start now." Nice words sure to resonate with the conservative base but hardly enough to set this candidate apart.

Two things the mainstream media does seem to know and often repeat about Representative McCotter is that he is a "guitar-playing" congressman (CNN, MSN,Chicago Tribune) and makes occasional appearances on the Fox News Channel's late night program Red Eye which takes a comedic look at the day's news. Are those frequent mentions to the exclusion of virtually all other achievements meant to diminish the McCotter candidacy? Perhaps. But in this age when far too many voters make decisions based on which candidate is "cool" (remember Candidate Bill Clinton's sax playing) and what's said on late night comedy programs, the media may be doing Representative McCotter a favor.

When it comes to substance, what we know so far about the McCotter campaign and what a McCotter presidency might entail, we learn from his brand new website. (mccotter2012.com)

Prominently featured on the site are "Five Core Principles:"

1. Our liberty is from God not the government.

2. Our sovereignty is in our souls not the soil.

3. Our security is from strength not surrender.

4. Our prosperity is from the private sector not the public sector.

5. Our truths are self-evident not relative.

Again, nice words but we'll have to wait and see how he plans to back them up and if there's room in the field for this cool conservative.