Josh Marshall has a piece on McCain's house memeory and posted this video that McCain's daughter put up YouTube about the fun, really cool day when all the national press showed up at their "ranch".. (my father was an Arizona rancher..20 acres in Sedona creekside don't qualify unless you count ranching bullshit)...
McCain Cous Cous BBQ in Sedona House Compound

As for being elitest, she mentions the couscous at the BBQ... I suppose that was next to the arugula....

Brave New Films, the brains behind therealmccain.com, have produced the absolute best ads against John McCain in this entire campaign.

They Love Him!

Unfortunately, I was unable to catch the faith forum this evening. However, thanks to the wonder that is YouTube, there are already some key clips available.

Here's a good place to start:

http://www.youtube.com/...

(below the fold, I've embedded several of the clips uploaded so far)

Crossposted at Wonky Muse and The Blue Voice.

McCain wants the presidency so bad he forgets his place:

Standing behind a lectern in Michigan this week, with two trusted senators ready to do his bidding, John McCain seemed to forget for a moment that he was only running for president.

Asked about his tough rhetoric on the ongoing conflict in Georgia, McCain began: "If I may be so bold, there was another president . . ."

He caught himself and started again: "At one time, there was a president named Ronald Reagan who spoke very strongly about America's advocacy for democracy and freedom."

A friend of mine, emailed me this story on how women got the right to vote. It's hard to believe that it really wasn't that long ago when women were denied their civil rights and could not vote.
The short story is based on the HBO documentary entitled "Iron Jawed Angels." A chilling tale about the suffragists who braved all odds to see that all Americans have the right to vote.
I put together a funny youtube video starring the Hallmark darling Maxine... Even found a video on the Hallmark site called Maxine for President to add a bit of an uplift to the sad story written by an unknown writer... Video and story below... How Women Got The Right To Vote Website
On Youtube

Finally, a sequel that's better than the original. The primaries are over...the general election is on.

Links: YouTube | Reddit | Digg

Update: Pro-McCain buriers are at it again -- they've buried (i.e., censored) this video at digg. If you're a digg user, here's the new digg.

I stumbled across this ad today and found it just smashing. It's obvious that if Obama can successfully attach McCain to the Bush sinking ship he'll win big. But the task isn't easy, since so many out there still believe McCain is some kind of maverick (I'm talking to you, traditional media). Showing the kisses and the hugs between McCain and Bush, while effective, just isn't enough. And while I think the Obama campaign has put out some really solid negative ads of late, this ad, by CartwrightDale, just nails it.

Okay, we're car wreck rubberneckers.  Every time John McCain's campaign posts a new ad on the YouToobz, we all click right on over, start counting the lies and hot white chicks.  No real harm, other than we're bumping the guy's numbers.

So here's my thought:  the next time the campaign releases one of these stinkers, let's all go instead to this link instead.  It would send a message to have that video go bump immediately  after another McHatchet job goes up on the board.

And that message is simple and clear:

Cross-posted at Georgia Politics Unfiltered.

Nearly a week after finding out that her video was one of five selected in the Democratic National Convention/YouTube "Why are you a Democrat in 2008?" contest, 18 year old Lithonia resident Morgan Harper is still surprised that her video got picked.

"It's kinda surprising," Harper said.  "When I first got the message on YouTube, I thought it was a generic message.  Then I read it and ran downstairs and told my sisters and my parents.  Everyone was really excited."

Back in July, the Democratic National Convention Committee (DNCC) launched a national online video contest with YouTube asking Americans to answer the question, "Why are you a Democrat in 2008?"

In Morgan's video, she describes her experience as a first time voter in the February 5th Democratic primary.

In "McCain takes lead on YouTube hits", Stephen Dinan of the Washington Times, in a feat as amazing as squeezing raindrops from a rock, concludes from the number of hits on McCain's YouTube channel that McCain has "figured out the younger generation just fine." Dinan's article echoes what's been chattered about on cable news coverage of McCain's "Celeb" ad--that the ad's YouTube popularity is allegedly evidence that younger voters are "tuning in" to John McCain:

Mr. McCain has pumped out a series of brutal yet entertaining attack ads and Web videos mocking the press and Mr. Obama, and the combination of wit and insult has pushed his YouTube channel to the sixth most watched on the site this week. Mr. McCain has beat Mr. Obama's channel for seven straight days and 11 of the past 14 days, in a signal he intends to compete for the YouTube vote.

That is a giant reversal. Mr. Obama had been quadrupling Mr. McCain's YouTube views and beat him every day since February, according to TubeMogul, which tracks online video

Dinan admits that Obama's YouTube channel still dominates with 51 million views, but states that McCain is "catching up" with 4.1 million hits.

Equating YouTube hits with candidate popularity or relevance is obviously a flawed calculus which is easily embraced by those eager to pump out a "tech in 2008" story. Yes, McCain's two most recent ads - "Celeb" and "The One" -- have indeed been YouTube hits. "Celeb" boasts 1.9 million hits, and "The One" has been viewed some 1.1 million times.

Yet, while McCain's "Celeb" ad and "The One" ad have received over a million hits each, those are the only two McCain ads to have crossed that threshold. All of McCain's other ads are lucky to break 300,000 hits. In contrast, Obama's ads almost universally break the 1 million hit barrier, with his race speech having almost 5 million hits.

But the hits are not what's important. Just because you slow to look at a car wreck doesn't mean you love the carnage of the accident. People are looking at the "Celeb" and "The One" ads out of curiosity, and not because youth voters can be wooed by Britney Spears and Paris Hilton references.

To disprove Dinan's entire article, one need only look at how YouTube users have rated McCain's ads. Sure, people are flocking to McCain's channel these last couple of weeks, but both ads barely garner a two-star rating (on a five-star scale). Indeed, most of McCain's ads receive less three stars or less. Obama's ads all have either four or five star ratings.

So, in short, people are flocking to see the McCain ads for the same reason people flocked to see Paris's sex tape---some things are so bad, you can't help but look.

Need more evidence that McCain isn't making any inroads with the YouTube crowd? A recent Democracy Corps poll reinforces the fact that the youth vote is Obama's--and Obama's alone:

The most recent national survey of young voters conducted by Democracy Corps and Greenberg Quinlan Rosner finds that the last six weeks have not dulled young people’s support for Barack Obama, despite the inauguration of a Republican attack machine. The new research finds the same convincing margin (27 points) as last month.

And really, when Paris Hilton's ad---which says McCain is so old he remembers when dancing was a sin and beer was served in a bucket -- already has almost 6.4 million hits and has received rave reviews, any claim that McCain nets a positive out of this is just absurd.

Those seeking to gauge candidate support among the "kids" are best served not by simply adding up YouTube view counts, but by looking at what really counts--how they are showing their support for a candidate, both on and offline.  Who are they organizing for on college campus? Are they buying up Obama shirts or McCain shirts? Are they dipping into their Ramen noodle budget to donate to Republicans or Democrats? Are they getting up early on a Saturday morning to attend an Obama rally or a McCain Townhall?  Those are hard indicators of which candidate best relates to the youth of this nation. And all indicators are that McCain, even with his new snarky ads, just isn't cutting it.

I noticed, reading Google's news page, that Associated Press' coverage of Hillary Clinton's speech yesterday was on YouTube.

Fascinating! It wasn't that long ago that, while you could find that speech, it was only because somebody screen-grabbed it off of CNN. Now the candidates post it directly, and even the press agencies do as well.

Below the fold I show five of my favorite YouTube videos that have absolutely nothing to do with politics.  Add your own in comments.

This guy, Florida State Representative Darryl Rouson (D-St. Petersburg), has been sending mailers to constituents with a picture of him and Senator Obama.  On one occasion (see picture below), he has even claimed to offering advice to the Senator.

Mr. Rouson is also the same man who was captured making homophobic comments on a video which has recently surfaced.

His Democratic Primary opponent, Charles McKenzie, endorsed by the Stonewall Democrats of Pinellas County and Equality Florida, needs our help.  http://www.mckenzie2008.com is his web site.  More info is below the fold.

Facts: (1) McCain is nearly 72
(2) His recently released medical records say nothing about his mental condition
(3) Almost all men of his age show significant slowing of their mental faculties
(4) He's showing apparently diagnostically significant signs of dementia or some similar condition - see after the fold
(5) The MSM and the establishment seem to be happy to push a guy into the WH who probably isn't fit on mental health grounds to complete one term

And I didn't even mention the fact that most forms of dementia are accompanied by a tendency toward irascibility and loss of emotional self-control

I just watched this video at The Raw Story site.  It is a video that needs to be made available to as many people as possible, because we will never see it on any traditional media outlet.  (Notice the use of traditional media, kos, because I ain't no outsider, dammit.)

The walls that we are building in Iraq, and on our border with Mexico, are simply inhumane.  Have we just quit trying to communicate and solve our problems with diplomacy?  Have we asked the Iraqis' to do the same thing?  Is building a wall the only solution this administration can come up?  

This video certainly answers that last question.

Watch the video after the fold.  

By now, mostly everyone is tired of the Veepstakes.  We're flooded with about a dozen diaries a day regarding who Senator Obama should or will pick as his running mate.  Some are suggesting that the wait may be over soon enough.  Nonetheless, with your indulgence, I’d like to take a look at an aspect of the vice-presidential race that is rarely explored -- YouTube.