Reader Submission: Holiday Bailout Song Video Clip

A reader sent us a link to this video clip. Check it out, it is pretty funny.

The Vet Who Did Not Vet Video Clip

This is pretty funny. Check it out.

Check Out This Bush Impersonation

Check out this kid's impersonation of Bubble-Boy. It is pretty good.

AARP Releases Music Video on Covering Kids' Health Insurance

Check out this music video from You Tube on the need to expand health insurance coverage for children:

What Do You Make of This Video by Obama Girl?

Okay, we are pretty sure that there are not making this kind of video about McCain, Guiliani, Romney, or for that matter, any of the other Republicans. This video clip has already been seen on You Tube over 800,000 times. The question becomes, according to this blogger on Huffington Post, what white American males are going to make of this video. Will it help Obama by making him appear hip to younger voters, or will it frighten white Americans, especially white American males, with its obvious reference to Obama's sexuality?

The Huffington Post blogger is afraid that this video clip will do to Obama what the infamous video clip of the white woman telling Harold Ford to call her did in the Tennessee 2006 campaign for U.S. Senate. Of course, one problem with that ad was that Ford didn't address the obvious racist appeal of that ad head-on. What he should have done is cut an ad that said somthing like,"Have you seen that ad with the woman telling me to call her? Well, here's the thing. I don't know that woman and never met her. Now, why is she lying about me? Because the people who made that ad think all white voters are ignorant racists." He didn't and he lost by about 3%.

See, here's the thing. That kind of ad is always going to work with a genuinely racist voter, who isn't going to vote for a black candidate anyway. What you want to do if you are the black candidate being attacked is make white voters who aren't racists mad at the people who made the ad, and, by extension, at the candidate benefiting from the ad.

When Republicans appeal to fear and play culture war politics, the only answer is to call them on it. Think about the swift-boat ads against John Kerry. Think what would have happened if Kerry had cut an ad along the lines of "Let me get this straight: George W. Bush used political connections to avoid serving in Vietnam. I volunteered and now my service record is being attacked by Republicans? Does this make any sense to you? Why are Republicans talking about my military service? Because they can't talk about their own."

Instead John Kerry ignored the ad, put no counter-theme out there and lost the election. We don't think that Democrats should necessarily be the first to go negative in political advertising. What we do believe is that when Republicans hit Democrats, Democrats need to hit back hard and fast.

Jerid of Buckeye State Blog Goes After Tommy Thompson

If you click here, you can watch a video that is a clip of former Wisconsin Governor Tommy Thompson leaving a meeting with New Hampshire "pro-life" leaders. What is so great about this video is that it shows the power of the internet to allow citizen journalists. Jerid of Buckeye State Blog is the creator of this video clip. It is part of Buckeye State Blog's New Hampshire Project.

Here he is in New Hampshire, probably on a shoe string budget, and yet he has managed to get a short interview with a presidential candidate. Then he took the clip, edited it, added some titles and text overlays, and posted in on You Tube. He probably did this using a relatively inexpensive hand-held camcorder, a laptop computer, and the hosting services of You Tube.

This is the kind of thing that more Democrats should be doing. Get a video camcorder, learn to edit your own video clips, and go down and cover the hell out of local government. Post the clips on You Tube. Put the word out that you are posting them. Let citizens and the media know what you are up to. Don't just criticize the media, become the media. Way to go, Jerid.

2008 Candidate Views on You Tube-3.20.2007

Earlier we posted an entry on how many views various candidates' videos had received on You Tube. We updated as of 3.20.2007. Note that Barack Obama is far and away the favorite of the You Tube set. We are not sure what this means except it is obvious that Barack Obama is attracting a lot of attention from people who use the Internet and are familiar with You Tube. The question is can he convert this enthusiasm into political work such as going door to door, registering voters, putting up yard signs, and doing all the things that you have to do to win elections.

Candidate
Obama 634307
Edwards 40023
Romney 24961
Dodd 3841
Giuliani 43408
Richardson 14252
Kucinich 13658
Clinton 51305
McCain 20335
Paul 4672
Biden 13763

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You can see all the candidates who have videos up on You Tube by clicking on the link in this entry's title.

You Tube Launches Channel for Politicians

Click on the link in this entry's title to check out the new channel that You Tube has launched for politicians. It is a very interesting idea. Not sure if all politicians would post to this channel or just candidates running for president.
UPDATE: Barack Obama's video clips have had more viewers than all others candidates who have posted combined. Second is John Edwards and in third place is Hillary. None of the Republicans who have clips up have as many viewers as any of the top three Democrats. This was as of Friday afternoon.