The Youtube Vote
At first, there was going to be no comment here on the various videos that have circulated about the candidates, but well, it's all getting wonderfully ridiculous. First, there was the girl who had a crush on Barack Obama and expressed it through video. Now, as if in response, Tamryn Southern, a former American Idol "star", has put out a video expressing her affection for Hillary Clinton in a video. Yeah, we now have dueling videos in the two biggest campaigns in the 2008 race. This has been the path of Obama and Hillary on the internet, he does one thing then she follows in some fashion. First there was Obama courting the bloggers (including this one, in all open disclosure), then Hillary, or ahem, someone operating intelligently with a lot of money and resources opened Hillary is 44 that slammed Obama and Edwards and extolled the virtues of Hillary being our next president. Now, a fan video came out in favor of Barack Obama and now a well produced video paean to Hillary is on the internet making news on CNN. And now the next volley will come.
Of course, that is the nature of political campaigns, and triply so one that is so early. We're still 16 months away from the general election and 5 months from Tsunami Tuesday, or the day 20 states are holding primaries. It should be noted this portentious Tuesday will be held on the Nona of February, which indicated the beginning of spring in the Roman calendar. And to the Celts, spring started in May and with it the war season. Any way you mark the calendar, the real fights will be on February 5 as we see who is standing and who needs to make a concession speech in the primary season. Or more likely, we'll see what areas of the country are behind whom and how the floor fights at the conventions will look like. But, with the prospects of all this far away, we need to amuse ourselves with something, and thank amateur videographers are there to make this happen. Oh, and by we, I do in fact mean all of us political junkies and the media.
After all, the media are getting tired of reporting the same war in Iraq they have been for years. The legal battles on the Hill are interesting, but only to those who know the legal ramifications of the President ordering civilians not to testify before Congress and declaring them totally immune from subpoena. Interesting, but hard to explain, and even more so when it takes days, weeks and months for all of it play out. And the Senate setting up limits on President Bush can be interesting, but mostly hard to explain and bogged down in process stories rather than actual legislation. Unless one has a degree in the subject and hours a day to think about it, it's really kinda, well, boring. Let's face it, girls in skimpy outfits showing their love for various political candidates is just good television.
So, again, the media are bored and need something to report on now that American Idol and Survivor aren't on the air right now. This is how the media operate: they need to fill so many minutes of air, inches of space or parts of whatever medium they are filling. Only so much can go to commercials. Michael Moore is getting press for going on CNN and fighting with Dr. Sanjay Gupta about his movie. Dr. Gupta basically agreed with the premise, but said some of the facts were wrong. Moore, well known for his decades of medical research (no, wait, he's known for decades of twisting facts that might be true to make his own point regardless of countermanding facts), accused Gupta, CNN and really anyone involved against him as being in the pockets of the big pharmaceutical and/or insurance companies. CNN has an interview with the greatest apologist for the oil companies since the existence of J.R. Ewing.
Well, in the meantime, we can all watch a video of MidnghtRanter as a rockstar.
So it is written, so do I see it.
Of course, that is the nature of political campaigns, and triply so one that is so early. We're still 16 months away from the general election and 5 months from Tsunami Tuesday, or the day 20 states are holding primaries. It should be noted this portentious Tuesday will be held on the Nona of February, which indicated the beginning of spring in the Roman calendar. And to the Celts, spring started in May and with it the war season. Any way you mark the calendar, the real fights will be on February 5 as we see who is standing and who needs to make a concession speech in the primary season. Or more likely, we'll see what areas of the country are behind whom and how the floor fights at the conventions will look like. But, with the prospects of all this far away, we need to amuse ourselves with something, and thank amateur videographers are there to make this happen. Oh, and by we, I do in fact mean all of us political junkies and the media.
After all, the media are getting tired of reporting the same war in Iraq they have been for years. The legal battles on the Hill are interesting, but only to those who know the legal ramifications of the President ordering civilians not to testify before Congress and declaring them totally immune from subpoena. Interesting, but hard to explain, and even more so when it takes days, weeks and months for all of it play out. And the Senate setting up limits on President Bush can be interesting, but mostly hard to explain and bogged down in process stories rather than actual legislation. Unless one has a degree in the subject and hours a day to think about it, it's really kinda, well, boring. Let's face it, girls in skimpy outfits showing their love for various political candidates is just good television.
So, again, the media are bored and need something to report on now that American Idol and Survivor aren't on the air right now. This is how the media operate: they need to fill so many minutes of air, inches of space or parts of whatever medium they are filling. Only so much can go to commercials. Michael Moore is getting press for going on CNN and fighting with Dr. Sanjay Gupta about his movie. Dr. Gupta basically agreed with the premise, but said some of the facts were wrong. Moore, well known for his decades of medical research (no, wait, he's known for decades of twisting facts that might be true to make his own point regardless of countermanding facts), accused Gupta, CNN and really anyone involved against him as being in the pockets of the big pharmaceutical and/or insurance companies. CNN has an interview with the greatest apologist for the oil companies since the existence of J.R. Ewing.
Well, in the meantime, we can all watch a video of MidnghtRanter as a rockstar.
So it is written, so do I see it.