Have Democrats Found Their Talk Radio?
(CBS/YouTube)
at the Apple "1984" ad homage supporting Barack Obama that led national newscasts back in … oh, huh, has it been two months already? (Woe the fate of the magazine writer.)
After dutifully walking his readers through the canon of political media as far back as "The Making of the President," Wolcott begins surveying the current terrain of online politics. Here's his take:
It may appear that I am singling out Republicans as ripe specimens of YouTube boobery. It's true. I am. I wish them all heartwarming unsuccess. But I believe that an impartial observer would second my impression that so far this extended political season Republicans are several caveman steps behind Democrats in understanding and exploiting the outreach of YouTube and in avoiding its sand traps.With high-profile mid-term victories in Virginia and Montana being attributed
to YouTube video of the Republican incumbents in those states – along with Internet-focused ad campaigns like this week's Bill Richardson commercials
– the question is worth asking: Has YouTube become today's equivalent of 1994-era political talk radio? Just as the Republicans and Newt Gingrich leveraged the power and outrage of conservative America during Clinton's first term over the airwaves, are liberals and progressives winning the YouTube War?