Kotecki Kommandeers the ‘Tube

In honor of today’s GOP CNN/YouTube Debate, Jimmy James Kotecki of Politico.com fame is serving as guest editor of YouTube’s front page.

InfoMania on Presidential Vids

InfoMania - a series of “pods” on Current_ - takes a look at campaign videos in this segment that I saw on thre tube a day or two ago.

As the year - and primary season - head down the stretch, I expect a lot of these video roundups.

I may even have to make one of my own.

YouTube - Hillary at the Iowa JJ Dinner

Playing catch up a bit here, but there were a number of great videos revolving around the Iowa J-J Dinner.

Barack Obama put out amazing video work around the J-J. Not to be left behind, the Clinton video put out a nice piece after the event in their usual speech/testimonial style.

PWNED! What Gravel was up to during the Vegas debate

Former Senator Mike Gravel was excluded from last week’s debate in Las Vegas. The video above shows how he handled the situation - by holding an event where he yells at the television. Thanks to Tivo, you don’t even have to miss any of the debate while he gives his responses.

Actually, this event was a nice way to deal with the situation.

Now, it wasn’t a surprise to the Alaskan that he was being left out of the party at UNLV. So, ahead of the debate his campaign also produced the video below, which takes a humorous look at what he’d be doing. To wit, he’d be pwning people at Halo III.

Reelpolitik LIVE at the Democratic Debate in Las Vegas

Elizabeth Kucinich Follows My Lead

When I was young, and still living in Denver, I spent many school nights kicking around in downtown coffee houses. Paris on the Platte was a favorite. The Market in LoDo and St. Mark’s (around the corner) were habitual haunts of my friends and I. Whenever the Psychodelic Zombiez or my pals in On Second Thought played the Mercury Cafe, I’d certainly be found there.

On more than a few occasions, I played the open mic nights at “The Merc” myself.

The video above brought memories flooding back, as I watched Elizabeth Kucinich speak to supporters at The Mercury Cafe. Lord knows what a blubbering, emotional mess I’ll become when the convention takes me back to the city that raised me.

Writers’ Workshop - Members of the WGA put on an advocacy vlogging clinic as part of their strike

Let us get the following out in the open: I am extremely partial to the Writers Guild of America in their strike against the AMPTP. After all, at one point I fancied myself a future member.

Now, members of the Guild are inspiring me once again, as they provide a superb example of how to vlog in support of your agenda. I saw the video below posted at United Hollywood, which is the go-to site for strike information. This video speaks with a number of WGA strike captains, who explain what the strike is about and make clear what they’re fighting for. This isn’t some abstract contract dispute between the Union and the Producers.

This is a struggle for working writers to make a living during those long stretches of time when they aren’t actively employed on a show or movie. It not only shows what is at stake for the casual viewer or outsider, it makes a strong activation case for Members to become Captains themselves.

The video above packs a ton of factual material into 3:50, laying out the case for the strike quickly and clearly. It goes through decades of Hollywood Labor history, they formulas behind residuals as they are, and the better structure the Guild is working toward.

It’s not exactly a surprise that the WGA members are putting out material of this quality. They are professional storytellers, after all. What surprises me is that these folks aren’t being pulled in to create content for the 2008 contenders. I’m guessing a lot of them are politically minded and progressive. Why aren’t they in the camps of the Democratic candidates?

Actually, I know exactly why (hint: it’s the pay). And for me, it’s for the best. I don’t want to compete with the guys behind The Office.

Edwards Hammers Away at Clinton (and in New Orleans)

Former North Carolina Senator John Edwards launched his campaign from the 9th Ward of New Orleans. From time to time over the course of the campaign he has returned there to work in the community with supporters from One Corps - the citizen activism off-shoot of his campaign. While the Clinton campaign was offering debate watching parties with Bill, and the Obama team had “Dinner With Barack,” Edwards gave away the chance to join him in working up a sweat rebuilding homes in New Orleans.

Edwards has shown that he knows his way around a hammer. Perhaps that is why he received the endorsement of the Carpenters union, eh?

But, in the days and weeks that have now passed since the Democratic Debate in Philadelphia, Edwards has been doing other hammering as well - with rival Hillary Clinton held with tongs against the anvil.

Entitled “The Politics of Parsing,” the video above is one of the most effective web videos of the campaign to date. While I evangelize day in, day out about using video to let voters get to know your candidate; there is also necessity the use it to help them get to know your opponent. Edwards campaign put this video out on the heels of the well-covered brouhaha near the end of the Philly debate. It makes their case with sound and titles and visually reinforces the point.

Feeling that they’d scored a hit, the campaign followed up with a flashback to the YearlyKos event a while back. On the 2008 candidate panel, Clinton raised a few electronic eyebrows among the Kossacs by stating - in no uncertain terms - that she would continue to take contributions from lobbyists, because they “represent real people.” That was a line perfectly teed up for both the populist Edwards and the reformer Obama.

After their initial hit on Clinton’s “positions” on the issue of drivers licenses for illegal immigrants, and the follow up with her clear defense of Washington lobbyists, Edwards campaign closed the circle with a video news clipping of Edwards concisely answering the question Clinton danced around.

This series of clips - which were woven into a fundraising push - demonstrate the power of narrative continuity across multiple pieces. While each stood up well as episodic clips, the story they told as a thought-out series was even stronger. And notice none of them included the candidate giving the stump speech for the umpteenth time!

Watch This: Freedom

“Freedom is a word I rarely use without thinking of the times when I was low”