Friday round-up

Well the weekend is upon us. Today it’s been an extremely unproductive day. I have watched most of the Olympics Inauguration Ceremony (really really impressive), failed to finish off the methodology section of my dissertation and not much inspiration for blogging today either. But just a quick post with a couple of interesting things I found around on the internet just as an excuse to wish you all a happy weekend.

First of all this report in TechPresident on McCain’s ‘The one’ attack ad on Obama. According to a group of progressive evangelicals that has endorsed Obama for president the ad (that at first sight seems pretty ineffectual) is full of coded language for evangelicals that portrays Obama as the anti-christ. Strange to say the least, but on a second viewing you can see slight hints I guess (not a religious man myself so can’t really tell if it’s emotionally compelling). The video is below for you to judge.

And the second interesting piece of infomation is this online version of the book ‘Rebooting America’. A compilation of short essays on the potential a relationship between web 2.0 and government could have for transparency, efficiency, etc… I just got a copy of the book delivered to me by Amazon and hopefully I’ll get to read it soon and definitely will put  the review out here when I’m finished with it.

Nothing else, happy weekend! and I leave you with ‘The one’…

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New Obama video

Good work on the McSame front from Obama’s camp, message discipline is key in a race where both candidates’s political profiles haven’t yet been fully defined in the mind of the electorate.

Hat tip from TOK.

UPDATE: OK, so Paris Hilton isn’t precisely part of my top five all times favourite celebrities. But you got to appreciate self-deprecation when you see it. For once I actually liked this girl, even if it’s just for duration of the 1:50 minutes of this video. Good work Paris!

Hat tip from Sadie’s Tavern.

Oh! and what Hilton actually says in the video on energy policy isn’t far from the truth, if you don’t believe me have a look at this.

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The 2008 presidential race kicks off…on the net

Take a good look at this video because it is the starting point of the 2008 presidential race. As Hilary 1984 became the first shot of the Democratic primary by telling voters that there was more than just Clinton in that race, this ‘I am voting Republican’ video tells voters with irony what Republicans are all about.

Let’s analyse it in detail. Firstly this video is important because is viral. It’s a funny and original video that people will like to share around spreading the underlying message in it, if you don’t vote Republicans will win and then you’lll be sorry. But most importantly this video isn’t aimed at swing voters, it’s aimed at Clinton Democrats. Those disgruntled voters that have threatened to vote for McCain in November are told in this video that beyond the man there are certain values that all Democrats share. That central message is key to an Obama victory in November, the need to unite the party under the leadership of the official candidate. This ad makes the argument brilliantly and without stridency.

Viral videos have taken a serious qualitative leap forward this year: Hilary 1984, Will.I.am ‘Yes we can’ and now this. Funnily enough all of them have come out of Obama’s side. The originality and freshness of his campaign as much as it has to do with Plouffe et al has to do with the incredible amount of talented individuals that have coalesced around the campaign through the net. That extra boost of originality, driven by the campaign’s open source approach, has already given Obama a primary victory, can it take him to the White House?

P.S.: Word has it that Floyd Brown, the man behind the 1988 Willie Horton ad is preparing a new ad on crime to take down Obama. Could it work this time?

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My all time top five favourite attack ads

YouTube must be one of the greatest innovations to ever come out on the internet. I love watching all kind of political videos, so I’m hoping to bring you from time to time some of the best out there on the net. This first set will be my all time top five favourite attack ads, I’m starting to feel a certain affinity to John Cusack in High Fidelity… anyhow…

No. 5- Willie Horton (Bush- Dukakis ’88 )

No. 4- Windsurfing (Bush- Kerry ’04)

No. 3- Not a leader (Conservative Party of Canada ’07)

No. 2- Michael J. Fox (McCaskill- Talent ’06)

No. 1- Daisy (Lyndon Johnson- Goldwater ’64)

Hope you enjoyed, next time: top five funniest political moments.

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