Garling Gauge

YouTube & Unknown Presidential Candidates

YouTube’s unknown influence on the race for President

YouTube has certainly become a force in politics this election cycle, the influence of which remains incalculable.

With the downfall of Republican incumbent senatorial candidate George Allen, partially due to his Macaca moment, YouTube videos are reshaping how campaigns are run.

Arguably starting with “Hillary 1984“, a pro-Sen. Barack Obama/anti-Sen. Hillary Clinton ad, YouTube videos have expanded the definition of a campaign ad– endorsed and un-endorsed.

Take the Sen. John Edwards mockery in “Feeling Pretty“, the pro-Obama music video “I Got a Crush…On Obama“, and the unique videos of former Sen. Mike Gravel, such as “Rock“, dubbed July 5, 2007 by Slate.com as “The First Presidential Campaign Ad for Stoners”.

But where, you may ask, are the Republicans in all this internet hubbub?

The strongest online presence is certainly Rep. Ron Paul. As of the date of this post a YouTube search for the Congressman elicits almost 25,000 hits.

And the other presidential and potential presidential candidates? Here are their July 5, 2007 YouTube video totals:

Barack Obama 12,900
Hillary Clinton - 12,300
John Edwards - 11,300
Al Gore - 9,010
Dennis Kuchinich - 1,270
Joe Biden - 715
Bill Richardson - 693
Mike Gravel - 569
Chris Dodd - 487
General Wesley Clark - 349

Ron Paul - 24,900
John McCain - 4,760
Rudy Giuliani - 4,060
Mitt Romney - 3,200
Fred Thompson - 815
John Cox - 488
Newt Gingrich -466
Mike Huckabee - 293
Tommy Thompson - 255
Tom Tancredo - 253
Duncan Hunter - 250
Jim Gilmore - 198
Sam Brownback - 157
Chuck Hagel - 107
Michael Charles Smith - 73
George Pataki - 26

Michael Bloomberg - 368
Ralph Nader - 223

Save Republican Libertarian candidate Ron Paul, the Democrats clearly have a greater online video presence, for good or ill. Sen. Barack Obama has more videos about him out there than the top three Republican frontrunners combined.

But there are other candidates as well.

Under the username of campaigner2008, one political maverick and apparent PowerPoint wizard has been uploading videos of even lesser-known presidential hopefuls:

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qo-1AGm55uE[/youtube]

John Bootie, Conservative

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k5sXt4EsN3k[/youtube]

Hugh Cort, Republican

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oD8fi3ZCBBs[/youtube]

Karl Krueger, Democrat

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PAi7z87svjs[/youtube]

Christine Smith, Libertarian

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PbORNNvMazc[/youtube]

Richard Michael Smith, Republican

As Sen. John Edwards said in the following video while speaking about YouTube’s influence on the 2008 presidential election:

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wrbg1_ADHBI&mode=related&search=[/youtube]

“YouTube is going to play a role I can tell you that. There’s a lot out there happening on the net including YouTube that is outside the control of candidates and that is not a bad thing.”

Sen. John Edwards also stated that the political content on YouTube is “Very good for democracy.”

While good for democracy, it remains to be seen what type of influence the video campaign has on candidates’ electability.

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