Campaign Video of the Day -- February 17, 2008

Every morning I climb the stairs to my office and surf Youtube for campaign videos. Most of the time I find something interesting, or at least timely. I like to rotate between candidates. That makes Blue Girl happy. Now that we are down to two in the Democratic race that means rotating between Hillary and Obama. Of course, even though the primary season hasn't ended the general election has already begun, so I also look for John McCain oriented videos. Since this is a lefty blog, my McCain videos are generally negative. Yesterday's is a good example.

A word about negative videos. There are lots of privately produced videos attacking all of the candidates. Having watched hundreds, if not thousands, I can tell you that most privately produced negative videos suck. Hillary, in particular, attracts rant after pointless, mind numbing rant. I have to work hard to find negative videos worthy of attention. If you want to be a Youtube film maker please note that going negative is best left to the professionals.

I try to find positive Hillary and Barack videos. For Hillary that usually means showing her professionally produced ads and her speeches. There is a lot of good stuff to be found at hillaryclintondotcom. In the battle between Mark Penn and Mandy Grunwald, I am rooting for Mandy. She does good work.

I find a lot of my positive Barack videos at BarackObamadotcom. He is so good on the stump that his speeches always seem to work.

Obama has also attracted a surprisingly large group of fan musicians, artists and very talented filmmakers who spend their own time and money making pretty positive videos, mostly on the theme of hope. Many of these positive Obama supporters are amazingly talented. Some are enthusiastic professionals with time on their hands. Others will be professionals as soon as they graduate from film school. Obvious examples include Will.I.Am's famous video Yes We Can and my current favorite, FIRED UP, READY TO GO. Not nearly as well known is the bouncy Go Obama-Politics of Hope Mix from luniticsandliars.

Today's Campaign Video is from that growing collection of high quality, positive Obama videos. Go Tell Mama is one of the sweetest videos I have seen this campaign season. It's message is very positive. The video is seductively heartwarming. On balance, however, I find Craynol's video a little scary because it elevates Barack Obama from real life politician to something more than a mere mortal. It reminds me of one of the religious cartoons shown in Sunday school classes that always seem to end with the giant face of Jesus staring at us with a benevolent smile. Obama's message of hope resonates with millions of Americans, but I fear America has been so long in the neo-con dark that we are tempted to forget that Obama is merely a very human messenger. We, not he, are the promise. We are electing a President, not a Savior.


If you encounter a campaign video worthy of broader play, please email the link to proctoring.congress@gmail.com subject Campaign Video of the Day.

Go Tell Mama after the break.