DNC Cites McClellan In New Video

The Democratic National Committee has released a Web-only video, "Propaganda," that uses video of former White House Press Secretary Scott McClellan to make a case against the Bush administration – and, by extension, presumptive GOP nominee John McCain.

The minute-long video opens with the words "Scott McClellan: White House Used Propaganda To Lead Us To War." There is then a cut to the former press secretary, who says "caveats were dropped...contradictory intelligence was ignored. Intelligence that had a high level of confidence was combined and packaged with intelligence that had a low level of confidence. And together, that made it sound like the threat was more urgent and more grave and gathering than it really turned out to be."

Later in the video there is a clip of John McCain from March 24, 2003, saying, "there's no doubt in my mind that once these people are gone that we will be welcomed as liberators." He is also shown predicting an "overwhelming victory in a very short period of time."

Watch it:

UPDATE: Responds Republican National Committee Spokeswoman Amber Wilkerson: "With the Democrats are on the verge of nominating somebody who has not been to Iraq for 873 days, it's no surprise they would rather engage in these sorts of backward-looking attacks. No amount of DNC propaganda can change the fact that Barack Obama lacks the necessary judgment and experience to make the decisions that will either bring peace and security to Iraq or more chaos and conflict."

YouTube is causing headaches for McCain, reports the Los Angeles Times today, and not just because of videos produced by the DNC. One three-minute video, "John McCain's YouTube Problem Just Became a Nightmare," has more than 1.5 million views, and "raise[s] some nasty doubts about John McCain's reputation as a straight talker," the Times reports.

The paper details the "YouTube imbalance" between McCain and Democratic frontrunner Barack Obama:

Six of the top 10 videos returned by a "John McCain" YouTube search Thursday pegged the 71-year-old as inconsistent, extreme, wooden or a combination of the three. (The one clearly favorable piece came from the McCain campaign and focused on his Navy service.)

Contrast that with a YouTube search of "Barack Obama." It's a swoon fest, with virtually all of the top entries featuring the Illinois senator at his eloquent, uplifting best. The videos range from the pop-icon worship of Scarlett Johansson and John Legend & Co. in "Yes We Can" (closing in on 13 million views) to a clip of the candidate's speech on race after the explosion over the controversial sermons of his onetime pastor, the Rev. Jeremiah A. Wright Jr.