Let's face it: Being a second-tier presidential candidate blows. It's hard to raise money. You have to travel on the cheap, unlike some of the other presidential hopefuls who navigate the primary states on charter planes and luxury buses. It's not even guaranteed that you'll get much face time during a presidential debate. Some candidates think the way to momentum is to get the media's attention, but even that's not easy, in spite of the fact reporters happen to love them a gabby presidential hopeful.

Case in point: Former Virginia governor Jim Gilmore, who has tried to rev up his campaign by offering up tough-talking one-liners about how he's the only real conservative in the race. The former Republican National Committee chairman generated a little buzz a few weeks ago by deriding the top three GOP frontrunners as "Rudy McRomney" because he claims they don't share the "core conservative principles" of his party. During the first debate, Gilmore used his brief moment in the spotlight--he's averaged about five minutes of talking time at the debates, about half what the frontrunners get--to mention the address of his campaign Web site, in hopes of generating some buzz. "Gilmore for President dot com," the governor said during the South Carolina debate three weeks ago.

Is it working? Probably not, considering his aides sent out not one, but two middle of the night e-mails to reporters here in New Hampshire offering up the former governor for interviews.