This Week's Favorite Videos: The Politics of Gender-Bending

Is it me, or are the citizen-filmmakers of the world getting behind? This week, only one citizen-created video — the George Bush gender bender clip — caused much of a stir. Most of the other notable vids were either clips taken off of TV, or well-produced campaign ads like John Edwards’ “The Politics of Parsing.” While some campaigns are starting to produce better videos, it’s now up to you, the voters, to counter back with your own work.

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7. America’s Water Cooler

To promote a new special and website called billiondollarpresident.org, NPR affiliate WNYC set up a water cooler (and a video camera, of course) in New York’s Washington Square Park and asked people to chat about the campaign. The result is an engaging video that shows how appealing a water cooler in the middle of a city park can be. Only 225 views on YouTube.

6. John Edwards: The Politics of Parsing

Immediately after last week’s Democratic debate, the John Edwards campaign produced a video accusing Hillary Clinton of engaging in “double-speak” for her statements about Iraq, social security, and driver’s licenses for undocumented immigrants. The big question, however, is whether it’s peoples’ passion for John Edwards or their dislike of Hillary Clinton that’s propelling the video. In any event, it’s been a hit, amassing more than 300,000 views on YouTube.

5. Oops, our bad

The Edwards campaign has issued a “correction” of the above video, in which it claims that Clinton actually does answer a yes or no question: she unequivocally states that she takes money from lobbyists. Not as popular or witty as the first “Parsing” video, but an admirable attempt at following up on a hit. About 17,000 views on YouTube.

4. Barack Obama: Come to the JJ Dinner Pre-Rally in Des Moines, IA

Barack Obama’s team goes old school with this ad for the “Jefferson Jackson Dinner Pre-Event Rally” in Des Moines (it’s an Iowa thing). Utilizing old black and white clips and a pinch-nosed announcer, it brings us back to a time when wireless meant telegraphs and the most viral video ever got was the latest episode of Bugs Bunny. More than 5,000 views on YouTube.

3. Barack Obama on Saturday Night Live

Despite Amy Poehler’s so-so impression of Hillary Clinton and mostly unfunny depiction of the rest of the Democratic lineup (with the exception, of course, of Darrell Hammond’s spot-on Bill Clinton), this sketch works because, well, Barack Obama shows up. More than 630,000 views on YouTube.

2. Ron Paul on the Tonight Show

To the inoffensive tune of the Tonight Show theme, Ron Paul shows up like a rock star to the NBC studios in LA. “I go, all these people came here for Tom Cruise? No, it was a hundred people for YOU,” says one woman (though it’s unclear if she’s a Jay Leno fan or a Ron Paul fan).

1. Gender Bender

Imagine if on January 20, 2009, George Bush not only leaves office but he also changes gender! These filmmakers aren’t actually insinuating that Bush will actually morph into a woman, but that a certain woman might take his place. While much of this video is overdone and unsubtle — get it, they’re equating “Karl Rove” with “Mark Penn”! — it’s worth it just for the morph at the end. The twist: it was posted by the folks behind bloomberg08nyc.com. Almost 4,000 views on DailyMotion.