YouTube Will Be McCain's Undoing
I should really teach myself how to use Final Cut Pro, or at least iMovie. I've got lots of YouTube ideas, but neither the time nor the energy to learn the software needed to actually make them. I was an Adobe Premiere expert about 10 years ago, but my lifestyle hasn't required any video editing skills in many moons.
That said, I think John McCain is setting himself up to be the first victim of YouTube in presidential politics. Imagine if we had YouTube in 2000 or 2004, what we could have done to George W. Bush. It would have been devastating. In 2000 we had to rely on the news media for Bush's gaffe tapes and quotes, and of course they weren't interested in giving them to us. They replayed Al Gore's sighs over and over again, but ignored Bush's idiocy and incompetence. Once in a while you'd get a viral email providing all of the recent Bushisms, that was about it.
In 2004 we had Fahrenheit 9/11. It was the first time many Americans got to see the real, uncensored Bush. YouTube didn't exist until Feb. 2005, so F9/11 was all we had. It definitely hurt Bush's standing and opened a lot of eyes, but mostly it preached to the choir. Not enough undecided voters went to see the movie; it was mostly hard core Dems who didn't like Bush already.
But now, for the first time in a presidential election, Americans have every crucial video clip at their fingertips. We don't have to rely on the networks, Michael Moore, Jay Leno, David Letterman, or the Daily Show. We can get the clips ourselves, and if you've got the chops you can actually make the clips yourself.
YouTube has been a mixed bag for Obama. On the negative side, all those clips from his ex-pastor didn't do him much good. But Obama is also very charismatic and photogenic, with lots of adoring fans, so he's benefited from the YouTube phenomenon as well.
For McCain, it has been nothing but bad news, and will only get worse as the year progresses. All of his TV ads suck, his speeches suck, and during every unscripted appearance he makes yet another horrible gaffe or misstatement. Jed Report thought he struck it rich with Tuzla. Wait until he sinks his teeth into McCain during the months ahead.
Already, I can see someone putting out a three minute video composed solely of McCain's mental gaffes and blunders from just the past year. 100 years in Iraq, more wars, Sunni vs. Shiite, bomb Iran, whether we've drawn down to pre-surge levels, "it's not important" if our troops come home, he wants to veto every beer, President Putin of Germany, the list is truly endless.
If I had the technical chops and the free time, I'd put it together myself. But luckily we have Brave New Films, Jed Report, TPM's Veracifier and others to do the dirty work. Maybe if John McCain knew something about computers, he'd know what kind of disaster is awaiting him as he tries to plod his stumblemouth self towards the presidency.
That said, I think John McCain is setting himself up to be the first victim of YouTube in presidential politics. Imagine if we had YouTube in 2000 or 2004, what we could have done to George W. Bush. It would have been devastating. In 2000 we had to rely on the news media for Bush's gaffe tapes and quotes, and of course they weren't interested in giving them to us. They replayed Al Gore's sighs over and over again, but ignored Bush's idiocy and incompetence. Once in a while you'd get a viral email providing all of the recent Bushisms, that was about it.
In 2004 we had Fahrenheit 9/11. It was the first time many Americans got to see the real, uncensored Bush. YouTube didn't exist until Feb. 2005, so F9/11 was all we had. It definitely hurt Bush's standing and opened a lot of eyes, but mostly it preached to the choir. Not enough undecided voters went to see the movie; it was mostly hard core Dems who didn't like Bush already.
But now, for the first time in a presidential election, Americans have every crucial video clip at their fingertips. We don't have to rely on the networks, Michael Moore, Jay Leno, David Letterman, or the Daily Show. We can get the clips ourselves, and if you've got the chops you can actually make the clips yourself.
YouTube has been a mixed bag for Obama. On the negative side, all those clips from his ex-pastor didn't do him much good. But Obama is also very charismatic and photogenic, with lots of adoring fans, so he's benefited from the YouTube phenomenon as well.
For McCain, it has been nothing but bad news, and will only get worse as the year progresses. All of his TV ads suck, his speeches suck, and during every unscripted appearance he makes yet another horrible gaffe or misstatement. Jed Report thought he struck it rich with Tuzla. Wait until he sinks his teeth into McCain during the months ahead.
Already, I can see someone putting out a three minute video composed solely of McCain's mental gaffes and blunders from just the past year. 100 years in Iraq, more wars, Sunni vs. Shiite, bomb Iran, whether we've drawn down to pre-surge levels, "it's not important" if our troops come home, he wants to veto every beer, President Putin of Germany, the list is truly endless.
If I had the technical chops and the free time, I'd put it together myself. But luckily we have Brave New Films, Jed Report, TPM's Veracifier and others to do the dirty work. Maybe if John McCain knew something about computers, he'd know what kind of disaster is awaiting him as he tries to plod his stumblemouth self towards the presidency.
posted by Existenz | 4:17 PM
2 Comments:
IF you want to make videos, you can download them to your computer, convert them from .FLV using SUPER converter to .avi, and then upload them to JumpCut.com and edit them online, all without using Final Cut Pro or $500 software, just your IE7 or Firefox 2.x. Jumpcut requires a Yahoo account, though. But it's free.
Something to consider...
Cool, thanks for the tip!
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