The week's favorite online political videos
BY Joshua Levy | Friday, October 26 2007
Here it is, this week’s installment of our favorite online political videos. Dig in for a video from liberal commentator Jim Hightower, a new song from the folks who brought you Obama Girl, fun with tagging, an explanation of just what is going on in the Iowa caucuses, John McCain’s celebration of his “I was tied up” remark, and more.
As always, your suggestions for the week’s top videos are welcome. Send them to info AT techpresident DOT com.
6. Hightower: The wonderland of Rudy, Mitt & Fred
Liberal commentator Jim Hightower is trying his hand at video blogging, and his first installment takes on the “Disney-like bubble” that he says Rudy Giuliani, Fred Thompson, and Mitt Romney are floating in as they make proclamations about the health of the American economy. Hightower counters that the GOP isn’t living in reality, pointing to rising prices and the lack of health care. He’s kind of funny and has a down-home appeal that translates well to online video. More than 1,600 views on YouTube.
5. Perfected: The Ann Coulter Song
From the folks who brought us Obama Girl comes a new satiric paean (a “fauxde”?) to, sigh, Ann Coulter. In the folk-pop piece, singer Leah Kauffman (the voice, not the body, behind Obama girl) mockingly accepts Coulter’s suggestion that Jews need to be “perfected,” and asks Coulter to lead her to the light. Another fun political video from BarelyPolitical that manages to have almost no actual political content whatsoever. More than 12,000 views on YouTube.
4. Information R/evolution
From the people who brought you the enormously popular “The Machine is Us/ing Us” video about Web 2.0 comes this, a love letter to tagging. Taking the gospel of Clay Shirky and David Weinberger to online video, they explain how older, material-based forms of classification won’t cut it anymore. Now, it’s all about tagging. More than 90,000 views on YouTube.
3. Why Tuesday: Iowa Caucus: Animated Edition!
Why Tuesday’s Jacob Soboroff is great at breaking complex issues down for us regular folks (witness his role as a presenter on PBS’s Wired Science). Here he lays out his plan for getting the candidates to respond to the group’s Candidate Challenge, which is asking them how to fix the electoral system. True to form, Soboroff is perfect at explaining the minute details of the Iowa caucuses on camera. More than 7,500 views on YouTube.
2. Help Wanted?
Anthony Atamanuik and Mary C. Matthew, who produce the videoblog Debate Porridge, decided to see which presidential campaigns are working on the weekends. Surprisingly, most didn’t answer the phone between 1pm and 3pm ET on a Saturday. Maybe they were out to brunch?
1. John McCain: Tied Up
John McCain has gotten a lot of traction out of his attack, during this week’s Republican debate, on Hillary Clinton’s proposed Woodstock museum and his crack that he was “tied up at the time” of that “cultural and pharmaceutical event.” So he did what any candidate would do: he made an ad out of it. Close to 23,000 views on YouTube.