George Clooney and Matt Damon Back Obama

In a recent interview with TIME, between all the joking and jabbing of Oceans 13 press at the Cannes Film Festival - George Clooney and Matt Damon swore their allegiance to Barack Obama, while Brad Pitt and Ellen Barkin declined to take a stance.

Elsewhere on the planet:
Last night Hillary Clinton attented a fundraiser at the house of Film Director Brett Ratner (Rush Hour 1,2,3 and X-Men 3) and backers included: Christina Aguilera, George and Phil Maloof, Penelope Cruz, Heather Graham, Eva Longoria, Ben Silverman, Jeremy Piven, Mike Myers, Will.I.Am, Todd Phillips, Steve Bing and Ron Burkle.

Let the battle for Hollywood's money and support rage on!

Read the TIME article here - and learn more on the Hillary Clinton event here.

Ron Paul On Bill Maher's Real Time

Here's Ron Paul on Real Time With Bill Maher from several nights ago. They are of course talking about Rudy Giuliani butting heads with Paul at the debate regarding our presence in the Middle East. Ron Paul talks about spreading the goodness of America by doing it here, cleaning our own house, not by doing it abroad. Ron Paul also says that the Republicans have lost their way. They talk about small government but they don't enforce it. It's interesting stuff.

Viralroots.com Joins YouTube Streams

YouTube Streams is a new YouTube application that is sort of a peer contributed and reviewed themed playlist. So we decided to test it out with the Viralroots.com Election Stream. A place where everyone can contribute their favorite YouTube campaign videos. We've loaded it up with just a few of our favorites.

Fred Thompson To Run For President in 2008

According to advisors, Fred Thompson has decided to run for President - and joins an already crowded GOP field that includes John McCain, Rudy Giuliani and Mitt Romney. Apparently a testing-the-waters committee is to be formed June 4 so Thompson can start raising money, staffers will go on the payroll in early June and a policy team has been formed - but remains under wraps in case Thompson changes his mind.

At the debate on May 3rd there were a scant 10 GOP candidates on stage and clearly, that's not nearly enough options. Will Thompson water down the GOP voter pool and further divide the party or is he the one to bring it home? Read more on this former Law and Order actor and Tennessee Senator to decide for yourself. Click here to learn more.

The YouTube Lobby

The Washington Post has written a great article on lobbyists leveraging the power of YouTube just like candidates. Here's one entitled "Send Your Underwear To The Undersecretary. Statistics on how many pairs of underwear actually make it to the Undersecretary coming soon:

From the Washington Post:

The Newest Lobbying Tool: Underwear
By Cindy Skrzycki

It was inevitable. In the Internet age, interest groups seeking influence in Washington are joining presidential candidates in discovering a new electronic tool to press their agenda: YouTube.

"Send your underwear to the undersecretary" urges the actress in the Competitive Enterprise Institute's stinging 66-second anti-regulatory video posted on YouTube, a free video-sharing site that is a subsidiary of Google. The video blames a 2001 Energy Department rule for an energy-efficiency standard that it says has made new models of washing machines more expensive while getting laundry less clean.

The underwear video illustrates what other advocacy groups are finding out: YouTube is a cheap, creative way to get a message to a potentially vast audience. This slow migration is in addition to more traditional lobbying approaches, such as direct mail, Web sites and scripted phone calls to federal officials.

Keep reading at washingtonpost.com

Ron Paul Drops Knowledge On Rudy Giuliani's Ass

Ron Paul held a press conference just to educate Rudy Giuliani on the history of the U.S. presence in the Middle East. Personally, I think it's fantastic to see a candidate have a vendetta:

Stat Watch: Ron Paul Most Popular Candidate On YouTube, Clinton Leads Polls By 9 Points

Ever since the Republican Candidates debated on May 3rd, Ron Paul has rocketed in popularity. He actually has twice the YouTube channel subscriptions as Barack Obama. Check it out: In non-viral news, Hillary Clinton is polling at 35%, 9 points ahead of Barack Obama. John Edwards has trailed out of significance to 14%.

As for the Republicans, Rudy Giuliani maintains a 25% share while Mitt Romney has nipped John McCain by a point, 16% and 15% respectively. Ron Paul is still not tracking in Rasmussen data, which we think is a mistake.

Key Election Factors: Change Vs. Experience

It's interesting to think that we might be living in a time where a desire for change in the White House could rival the desire for seasoned leadership. It's even more interesting that in this time of unprecedented desire for change, we've never had such a platform for political beauty contests. I'm of course talking about Web 2.0. Previously, it seems that experience has always blown young faces espousing change out of the water. Just look at the number of Presidents who have been Governor versus those who have not. But in the YouTube and MySpace age, the Viralroots (tm) age, things might just be a changin'. While two-way communication is the most exciting feature of the Internet, it's proven under-utilized. If anything, the Internet is just showing to be a broader outlet for Barack Obama's pretty face and pretty talk. It's still only the minor candidates engaging in dialog with the online constituency. For a "different kind" of candidate, Obama is proving pretty traditional. An interesting AP article via CNN:

Analysis: Change vs. experience could be key to 2008 race
But the war in Iraq and the rise of global terrorism make for an anxious electorate and could turn this into a "war" election, one like the campaigns of 1944 and 2004 when voters found comfort in the most experienced candidates.

Change versus experience? The White House will likely go to the man or woman who speaks best to both.

"You can't separate them. I think (voters) want both," said John Edwards, the Democratic vice presidential nominee in 2004 who is running for president in 2008.

"I think they're looking for change -- serious change, substantive change -- and I think they will have to feel like whoever the candidate is is prepared to be president of the United States," Edwards said in an interview.

"I will say I don't think they will judge that based on a resume. I think that's a judgment they will make based on what they see and hear -- the demeanor, personal strength (and) those kinds of things."

Edwards was quick to add that last part because he is more of a "change" candidate than one of experience. Despite this being his second national election, the former North Carolina trial lawyer has little in the way of a political resume outside a single term in the Senate.

Fellow Democrat Barack Obama also is more change than experience. Just three years removed from the Illinois Legislature, Obama rocketed to the top tier of the Democratic presidential race by presenting himself as an outsider who could transform government crippled by corruption, polarization and "a smallness of our politics."

"The time for that politics is over," Obama said when he announced his candidacy February 10. "It's time to turn the page."

The message clearly resonates. The Illinois senator raised more money for the nomination fight than any other candidate while drawing huge crowds and an Internet following.

Keep reading at cnn.com

Mike Huckabee Dreams Of Fair Tax In YouChoose Spotlight

You do want to see the IRS disappear, don't you? Here, Mike Huckabee asks us what we think of the Fair Tax. I'm more interested in "how" than "what".

Wonk Idol - Hillary Clinton Campaign Song Contest

Hillary Clinton reminds me of an over-the-hill high school English teacher that the pretentious book dorks find really hip. In the same tradition, the cries for mercy by the "burn-outs" are going ignored. Anyone who remotely gives a fuck about Hillary Clinton's campaign song should be stripped of their voting rights immediately.

And to prove that the above image is not just a Photoshop prank, check it out at HERE.

Bill Richardson Campaign Ad

Thanks to a reader for pointing out another funny campaign ad for Bill Richardson. He was nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize four times? Ya, I'd say he's overqualified.

Iowa Polls Put Edwards and Romney Ahead Of The Pack

In a recent Iowa poll the numbers came back looking strikingly different from the widely acknowledged national polls.

John Edwards leads the Democrats with 29%, with Barack Obama courting 23% and Hillary Clinton in third at 21%. Interestingly enough though, it is Hillary who leads in most national Democratic polls.

On the GOP side, Mitt Romney has taken the lead with an impressive 30% of the vote in Iowa. McCain is in second at 18%, and Giuliani is in third with 17%. And again, nationally there is a discrepancy with Giuliani or McCain holding the lead in most polls.

Will there be a convergence with these figures as we get closer to the election? Will the Iowa figures keep lesser supported candidates in the race and railroad the plans of the better supported rock stars? Will Iowa come around and follow the lead of the National opinions or will the Nation wide voters adjust towards middle America?

We'll keep monitoring...

Check out the figures here.

John Edwards Drops Poverty Knowledge, For Money

In the wake of John Edwards working at a hedge fund to learn about poverty, it's being reported that he took that knowledge and shared it with a group of UC Davis students, for which he charged $44,000. SFGate.com Politics Blog purports that it was $55,000 and was paid by the "tax-payer funded" University of California at Davis. As a proud graduate of a UC school, tax-payer money pays for a minority of UC budgets (I'm sure this fact is somewhere on wikipedia.org) so I say it was tuition that paid for his lecture. Parents, do you know what your hard-earned pesos are going towards? Now, the LA Times is reporting the $44,000 figure for a UC Davis appearance which is probably the correct number as the LA Times is the LA Times and the hippies at SFGate.com love to inflate numbers like this. Also, the LA Times article specifies that while John Edwards "learned about poverty" at Fortress Investment Group, he earned $480,000. The funny thing about all this is unlike the angry hippie chick at SFGate.com, I actually don't give a fuck if Edwards gets paid to talk about Thai massage at UC Davis, more power to him. My only point is that Edwards has gotta give up on this bullshit spin. You can't tell people that you worked at a hedge fund to learn about poverty without insulting their intelligence and making them think you're an asshole. Mr. Edwards, grow a pair. Tell people you're out to earn an honest buck just like the next guy and being more fortunate than others empowers you to help the needy more than others. That doesn't sound so bad, does it? Anyway, here's both articles:

Edwards, Giuliani report multimillion-dollar incomes for 2006
Edwards charges $55,000 to speak to UC Davis students about poverty

Elizabeth Kucinich Roundup

It's been a while since we've checked in on the lovely Elizabeth Harper Kucinich. Last time, we took a look at videos and photos of Dennis Kucinich's lovely wife. (See it here.) We also went over some cursory facts. Now, let's take a more detailed look. I introduce you to our new periodic segment, The Viralroots Elizabeth Kucinich Roundup! More Elizabeth Kucinich photos! More Elizabeth Kucinich videos! More Elizabeth Kucinich facts! Is this getting creepy yet? You be the judge! At the Viralroots Elizabeth Kucinich Roundup!
Okay, glad to get that out of the way. Now let the fun begin.

First, contrary to popular belief, the MySpace page that we've previously linked to is a fansite and not Elizabeth's. (UNOFFICIAL has suddenly popped up on it.)

Second, Elizabeth Kucinich has her tongue pierced! You can do whatever you want with that fun fact. It was featured in a recent profile conducted by Sarah Baxter for The Sunday Times and posted to Times Online:

Essex girl fills White House race with lurve
Sarah Baxter, Washington
AN Essex girl may be the first lady with a tongue stud to have set her sights on the White House. The wife of Dennis Kucinich, a left-wing Democratic congressman and 2008 presidential candidate, is a 29-year-old hippie chick from Upminster at the end of London Underground’s District line.

Elizabeth Kucinich, née Harper, has been on the stump with her husband, a 60-year-old anti-war campaigner from Cleveland, Ohio, mingling with the likes of Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama backstage at the Democratic presidential debates. “There’s a kind of camaraderie,” she said.

A 6ft tall willowy redhead who has been compared to Arwen Evenstar, the Lord of the Rings character, she towers over her diminutive husband. “Who cares?” she said in an interview. “I like wearing high heels so I’m used to being taller than most men I stand next to.”

Nor is she bothered by their 31-year age difference. “I have never noticed it at all,” she said. “Dennis is a very mature but young-at-heart gentleman and we complement each other.”

Keep reading at timesonline.co.uk

Third, here's two new pictures we haven't linked to yet (her photos are getting popular but you know she hasn't made it until fake nudes crop up on the Internet):


Finally, here's an old video we found on youtube in which Elizabeth Kucinich admits that she agreed to marry Dennis Kucinich only two weeks after meeting him.


Thanks for reading the first installment of the Elizabeth Kucinich Roundup!

Bill Richardson Announces Run for Presidency - Also, Check Out His Latest Western Themed Video

Bill Richardson today has officially entered the 2008 Presidential race. Read more on that here. But more importantly, check out this Western themed political video I found on him. Its kinda hilarious.

Hillary Clinton YouChoose Spotlight Video

It's been a few days but I'm not about to let Hillary off the hook for her YouChoose Spotlight video. Her request for what people think her campaign theme song should be can be summed up with one word: vacuous. Simply vacuous. It is mind blowing that this is how a candidate in this era might choose to engage the constituency. It's downright insulting. Here's an opportunity to really interact with voters. Mike Gravel is talking about a United States in which we actually have direct elections which for the first time ever seems feasible and manageable with Web 2.0. We're talking unprecedented access to voters and unprecedented participation by voters. But Hillary Clinton, the Democratic front-runner by all measures is talking about campaign songs. She's lost my endorsement on this alone. Seriously. It's also inspired me to dig up the paper I wrote in college on the discrepancy in support shown to female candidates in direct polling versus anonymous polling. When I find it, I'm gonna throw it up here just to drive home the point that she has no hope in hell of being the next president. (god help us if I'm wrong.)
And naturally, her vacuous video is yielding equally vacuous responses. There's a shock. Here are some of my favorites (oh, by the way, I really hope the RIAA comes after her for inciting piracy ;-) ):

Hillary Clinton Coughs and Struggles With Breathing

At a commencement address at Dillard University in New Orleans on Saturday, Hillary struggled for breath and coughed as she tried to finish her speech. The campaign trail is long and arduous - and while questions of health and age have plagued John McCain, Hillary has generally been viewed as young and healthy in relation. But all information and video is important as we creep closer to the election. See for yourself how she handled herself in the situation:

Savvy Ron Paul Is Worth A Digg

CORRECTION: Okay I lied. Apparently I was asleep at the switch and fell for some viralroots trickery. This was posted by a Ron Paul SUPPORTER with a very similar YouTube name to Ron Paul's official account. It was NOT posted by the Ron Paul camp. So please disregard this shit post. Contrary to my earlier belief, the Ron Paul camp is still only semi-savvy. Thanks. I quit. Back to drinking. bye.

Libertarian, I mean Republican Presidential candidate Ron Paul has posted great footage to YouTube from Real Time With Bill Maher. The footage includes Chris Dodd on a giant screen saying absolutely nothing and Bradley Whitford waxing political but what's really cool is that this is the first video that I have seen on YouTube submitted by a presidential candidate that includes a link to DIGG the video. As we all know, when the stars align for an article or a video on Digg, a viral avalanche can ensue that yield hundreds of thousands of hits over a very short period of time. That's not to say that this video is the one that will get Ron Paul on the map, but none-the-less hats off to his people for getting jiggy with Digg. You can Digg the video HERE and watch it below:

Giuliani vs Paul

An interesting debate has decided to stay at the forefront of GOP politics - and Giuliani and Paul are in the eye of the storm. The issue is whether or not the 9/11 attacks on NYC could be argued as 'blowback' for US involvement in the Middle East over the last decade. Paul's mention of this and subsequent smackdown by Giuliani at the debate earlier this week, has become newsworthy and continues to stick around. Surely Giuliani is not so sheltered that he would have 'first heard' of this theory that night at the debate - but maybe that just doesn't matter. Its an opportunity for him to look strong on National Security and relatively to make Paul look weak. Perception is everything in this race and Giuliani is no fool. Read more on it here.

epolitics.com Viral Campaign Article

I found this really good article at epolitics.com from a year ago about viral political campaigns or what we so humbly call, Viralroots(tm). Check it out:

Online Tactics: Viral Marketing/Viral Campaigns

Mmmmmm, mental viruses. Let’s create a video clip, an animation or even an email appeal that’s so compelling that people forward it around the world and do our promotional work for us. It’s basically traditional word-of-mouth leveraged across the internet, and who wouldn’t want to create The Thing That Everyone Is Talking About?

Of course, launching a successful viral campaign involves much more than just dreaming up a clever video, and for every viral campaign that claws its way to the surface of the public mind, dozens or hundreds of others sink leaving nary a ripple. What can you do to give your campaign the best chance of succeeding?

Keep reading at epolitics.com

Frontrunner Round Up

Front runner homepage traffic statistics for both political parties:


Democratic front runner traffic rank comparison over the last week:

Republican front runner traffic rank comparison over the last week (note: McCain's traffic is too low to register.):

Hillary Clinton In YouTube YouChoose Spotlight

Never one to break tradition, Hillary Clinton continues the trend of candidates using their time in the YouTube YouChoose Spotlight to avoid political issues entirely. For Clinton's turn in the Spotlight, she asks us what we think her campaign song should be. Seriously. I couldn't make that up. I'm not that funny. See for yourself:

GOP: Republicans Debate In South Carolina

Welcome to the wall o' Republicans.

Live From The Dorms: James Kotecki Interviews Mike Gravel

James Kotecki really is the pioneer of the YouTube viralroots movement. He has conducted yet another interview with a Democratic Presidential candidate direct from his dorm room. This time it's with Senator Mike Gravel. Senator Gravel talks about his National Initiative which is all about enabling direct politics (as opposed to electoral) and decriminalizing drugs. Gravel reiterates his stance that drug use is not a law enforcement issue but a health care issue.

Visit James Kotecki's blog at http://jameskotecki.blogspot.com

Congress Approval Down to 29%; Bush Approval Steady at 33%

At times, I feel we give our government a free pass in the way we evaluate their performance. We should expect more from our Nation State. Let's for a moment look at the numbers from another perspective:

64% of America disapprove of Congress
62% of America disapprove of Bush

Read the thorough report here.

Hillary Clinton, Barack Obama Back Within Two Points

Here's the latest Rasmussen Reports Polling Data:

2008 Democratic Presidential Primary
Hillary Clinton 35%
Barack Obama 33%
John Edwards 14%

For the fourth time in five weeks, a national Rasmussen Reports telephone survey of Likely Democratic Primary Voters shows Senators Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama within two points of each other. This week, it’s Clinton 35% Obama 33%. Former Senator John Edwards is in third place with 14% support. New Mexico Governor Bill Richardson is a distant fourth at 3%.

Keep reading at rasmussenreports.com

Hillary Clinton Brings Out Big Guns: Bill!

With polling too close to call, it's no wonder that Hillary would bring in America's favorite president for a boost. Below is a Hillary Clinton campaign commercial featuring Bill Clinton talking about how wonderful Hillary is. Not only was this the smartest move on the planet, it should have been made earlier. Hell, Bill shoulda debated for her. I'm sold. The two reason's why this video has won my vote: 1) Hillary Clinton is a modern day Mother Theresa, I just didn't realize it yet. 2) Seeing Bill really makes me misty-eyed for the good ol' days. Get that man back in the White House!

Duncan Hunter In YouTube YouChoose '08 Spotlight

Duncan Hunter, the Republican candidate whose claim to fame is inventing the San Diego border fence has begun his term in the YouTube YouChoose Spotlight today. This in the wake of Dennis Kucinich garnering 1629 channel subscribers and 386.154 channel views during his time in the YouTube YouChoose Spotlight. Duncan Hunter is strong on national defense and security. In his video he asks viewers to take a minute to discuss a hero of theirs. Duncan Hunter's hero is Duncan Hunter. Not himself, but his son who enlisted after 9/11. Going into this, Duncan Hunter is clocking in at 185 subscribers and 37,553 channel views. No doubt the Republicans continue to trail in YouTube support behind the Democrats. One last thing. Hunter's Spotlight video is queued to a still frame of his son in military fatigues. Once you hit play, it snaps back to Hunter's talking head. Is this a strategy to induce views? Perhaps they think that the image of a soldier is young, hip and more likely to get people to view the video as opposed to just a still of an old dude in a suit. See for yourself:

MySpace Town Hall - Obama,11 Others To Participate

A great little article on the MySpace Town Hall:

A dozen presidential contenders will participate in what is being billed as MySpace's version of a presidential "town hall" meeting.

During each session individual candidates will appear via webcast and MySpace users will be able to submit questions via instant messaging.

Keep reading at Wilshire And Washington.

Obama Slips - Says 10,000 People Died in Kansas

At a campaign speech in Virginia, Obama mis-quoted the death toll from the recent Kansas tornado disaster. He put the figure at 10,000 which is a hair more than the real number, 12. Obama realized his mistake by the end of the speech and noted that "there are going to be times when I get tired," "There are going to be times when I make mistakes."

Candidates always have to be on, on their toes and on the ball. There's no room for error in this media age when stories can be beamed out instantly. It doesn't seem like this is a huge one, but I'm sure we'll catch more soon. (Remember when McCain sang: Bomb Bomb Bomb, Bomb Bomb Iran)

Read more on it here. Watch it here:

John Edwards and Danny Glover Rebuild Katrina Homes

Ok, I just found this posting by Edwards. No epiphany to be found in it, but it shows Edwards with Danny Glover rebuilding homes in the wake of Katrina, which is a good cause - regardless of Right vs Left. I dig the domestic focus of the video. Also, quite simply, I think the Lethal Weapon movies are sweet. So here you go:

Edwards' Latest Video Posting

John Edwards' latest video has been posted a scant 17 hours ago. He's the most recent one to throw one up on YouChoose and sadly our only prize to him is mere a spotlight on our lame lil' site, but you know...good times.

It's normal Iowa folk speaking out against Bush and against the war in Iraq. Simple. Short. To the point. A smidge boring for my liking, but the message is clear. Bush is bad, Edwards is good. Check it out for yourself:

Hillary Clinton Regains Lead Over Barack Obama

Remember in THIS article when we discussed speculation that the next few weeks would be crucial for Barack Obama to prove himself on the issues? Well, in the wake of the Democratic candidates debate in which Obama was accused of stumbling over issues specifically those pertaining to foreign policy, Obama has stumbled significantly in the polls. Above is the latest from Rasmussen Reports and below is a graph of how his MySpace friends count is rebounding from his MySpace do-over. We will be tracking this real closely as the Primaries near and hopefully find a correlation between real world polling and online support because they still appear divergent at best.



Read more at Rasmussen Reports.

John Edwards Fought Poverty At His Hedge Fund

A while back James Carville (I think in OUR BRAND IS CRISIS which is an incredible documentary) said one of the most obvious yet important things about campaigning ever. To paraphrase, it doesn't matter if something is true if nobody will believe it. If anyone needs to learn from this, it's John Edwards. To explain his time spent hedge fund-ing it up between campaigns, Edwards says he did it to learn about poverty. Okay, sorry guys. As I'm typing I've realized this is so absurd it should go without commentary. This was a waste of a post. I'm not going to bother drawing some pseudo-witty conclusion about John Edwards and the Carville axiom. Rather, I'll just apologize and let you digest the facts. Sorry. I'll try really hard not to do that again.

In case you do want to read more, go HERE.

Dennis Kucinich Rocks YouTube Spotlight

As we wait with baited breath for John McCain to respond to YouTube, Dennis Kucinich swiftly embraces the consituency with personal responses. What is most surprising is that it's really not hard to talk to a camera and smile for a minute to appease thousands of interested political junkies and casual browsers. For what it's worth, it gets you a nod on a shitty little blog like this one:

Blair Lauds New French Leader on YouTube

Even the British are with us (surprise, surprise..right?) in this new YouTube nation. Tony Blair's preferred method of congratulating the new leader of France, a gentleman by the name of Nicolas Sarkozy... was not a press conference, not a letter, not sky writing or IM'ing or texting or even calling...it was YouTube. Read more on the incident here.
And watch the video here:


Blair also does the speech in French:

Oprah Endorsing Obama on Larry King

Here's the video of Oprah on the Larry King Live Show as she professes her support for Obama. She openly recognizes that her financial contributions will be limited, but acknowledges that her value will be in her influence over the gabazillion women out there that live their lives according to her opinions. When Oprah speaks, people listen. But, will those listening that are Republican voters cross the divide and follow her lead come election time?

YouChoose Posting Spotlight: Obama and Giuliani

Of the leading (I use that term loosely) candidates to post videos on the YouChoose channel of YouTube, Obama and Giuliani did so as recently as yesterday. For being so attentive to the YouTube generation's preferred medium of communication, today we'll spotlight their most recent postings.

Obama:

[This has been viewed 850 times]

Giuliani:

[This has been viewed 218 times]

As for the rest of the field, candidates last posted...
John Edwards: 2 days ago
Mitt Romney: 3 days ago
Hillary Clinton: 5 days ago
John McCain: 5 days ago
Dennis Kucinich: 7 days ago

As insignificant as this may seem, it's acually a good indicator of each candidate's investment in reaching out to the online community. The important factors: What's being posted and how often? In this latest round, it looks like Obama is sticking with the Iraq war criticism and Giuliani is showcasing his support from his Senatorial amigos. We'll monitor the postings and share more with you soon.

Ron Paul Opinion Video to Radiohead

I found this rather interesting little video response (posted yesterday) on why a YouTuber is going to vote for Ron Paul. Its neither ground breaking, nor visually arresting (bordering on boring), but since I don't actually know much (or anything) about Ron Paul or his positions it became rather informative. (fyi: Paul is a 10th term Republican Congressman from Texas) And, at the very least, I got to listen to Radiohead for two and a half minutes to keep me entertained.

That's what our youthful attention spans need these days, brief summaries to a melody. But not because we can't handle the knowledge, we're just busy with our XBox, our American Idol, our Sopranos, our Entourage and our day jobs - and we need help wading through the tides of information. To learn a smidge on Mr.Paul's opinions watch this:

btw: Does Mr. Paul even have a shot against the rockstar, another Clinton or even his fellow GOP compatriots: McCain, Romney or Giuliani? Well, the video is only 2 minutes of your life, maybe his opinions will align with yours. Watch and judge him for yourself.

GOP YouChoose Candidates By The Numbers

In the wake of the GOP debate at the Ronald Reagan library a few days ago - the YouChoose Subscriptions and Channel Views on YouTube are as follows:

Mitt Romney
Subscribers: 1,842
Channel Views: 593,189

John McCain
Subscribers: 1,160
Channel Views: 419,520

Rudy Giuliani
Subscribers: 1,249
Channel Views: 75,351

Ron Paul
Subscribers: 1,478
Channel Views: 69,512

Sam Brownback
Subscribers: 60
Channel Views: 2,295

Jim Gilmore
Subscribers: 19
Channel Views: 642

Romney and McCain look strong with Channel Views at nearly 600,000 and 420,000 respectively. But as for the rest of the pack, numbers look paltry at best. The YouChoose forum is speaking to us. Let’s keep listening…

QubeTV: Conservative YouTube Already Infiltrated By Stephen Colbert

Just when you think you're running out of things to talk about, the conservatives cry foul and create a whole new forum. After allegations of YouTube having a clear liberal bias, two conservatives have launched the conservative alternative, QubeTV.tv. While an ABC News article relays claims of censorship of conservative YouTube videos, it is my belief that on the macro level this is an issue of savvy. Young net junkies have it and happen to be liberal. The others, they don't. Not for nothing, the first thing i stumbled upon browsing QubeTV was an anti-Bush Stephen Colbert video [HERE]. As of yet, QubeTV has pretty crappy functionality which may be a bandwidth issue. Also it's not very Web 2.0. You don't have the ability to embed or send video which is key in viralroots campaigning. Certainly it's early and no doubt they will take a qeue or seven from YouTube. So we'll keep an eye on QubeTV and when (if) things get interesting we'll let you know.


Read more at ABC NEWS.
And check out qubeTV.tv

Dennis Kucinich Surpasses John McCain In YouTube Channel Subscriptions

After just two days in the YouTube YouChoose Spotlight, Dennis Kucinich has surpassed John McCain's YouTube Channel Subscriptions. It's of very little wonder. So far, Kucinich is the only candidate to really engage on a personal level. He's the first to ask questions not teeming with rhetoric. It is exceedingly clear that the YouTube constituency sees Kucinich as a candidate that listens to what the people have to say and is interested. It's sorta heartwarming to see how personal the responses are to his spotlight video. And now for the big but: BUT, is it all in vain? In his recent interview with Bill Maher, Kucinich said that the polls will sway to his favor over the next months as people realize he's a true candidate of the people. In reality, Kucinich's first hurdle is making it into the polling data at all. None of the major polling organizations are even tracking him. Once he does, if he does, Kucinich is still up against two powerhouses and rumors of Al Gore joining the race. But like every big presidential race, we're gonna need a wrench gumming up the works, the good ol' third party candidate who steels votes from the majority side, allowing the minority side to slip into the White House. Even though it would spell certain upset for the Democrats, it would be a hell of a way for Kucinich to make it into the polls.

Republican Candidates Debate - Live Blogging Coverage

LIVE debate excerpts

Paul: Forign policy needs to be changed. I would never abuse habeus corpus.

Guiliani: We havent been attacked since 9/11. Bush did the right thing to put us on offense.

Thompson: I would transform healthcare system better than Bush has done.

Huckabee: I wouldnt centralize power like this administration. We need strong state power, not just federal.

McCain: I woulnd't mismanage the war like bush.

Romney: I respect Bush's thoughts to protect our country from terror. We need to strenghthen the American Family.

Romney: The big bad three are Pelosi, Reed and Hilary Clinton

Guiliani: The national card should be required for only for immigrants.

Tancredo: We do not need a national ID card, but do need a social security card that cannot be tampered.

Paul: I am absolutely apposed to a national card. This is against our idea of a free nation.

McCain: We do need a tamper proof document.

Brownback: We dont need a card. We need a secure border with a fence. We already have a social security number.

Romney: Having a national card and an indication of work status will help.

Guiliani: A national tamper proof card is needed in this country. We need a database of everyone.

Tancredo: I will work to protect women's rights. But the right to kill another person is not one that I will support.

Paul: I trust the freedom of expression and we shouldnt regulate the internet.

Gilmore: I am a consistent conservative that wont say one thing one year and another thing the next year.

Romney: The American family is the heart of this country. We need more marriages before babies.

McCain: YES believes in evolution. Also sees the hand of god when he sees the sunset at the grand canyon.

McCain: Lieberman would be a part of my administration. "I know how to reach across the aisle to the democrats, and they know how to do it to me"

Guiliani: We have to adjust the alternate minimum tax, we need to adjust the death tax.

Paul: Get rid of inflation tax. Its a transfer of wealth from the poor to the rich.

McCain: Let's cut the alternate minimum tax and the 3000 tax credit for low income citizens.

Gilmore: Let's cut the Alternative minimum tax.

McCain: Tax cuts need to be permanent, but spending is ruining the future of this country. The first pork barrel bill that crosses my desk will be vetoed.

Romney: Is for universal heath care.

Guiliani: YES Govt funding on embryonic stem cell research.

Paul: NO Govt funding on embryonic stem cell research.

McCain: YES we should fund embryonic stem cell research.

Gilmore: NO Govt funding on embryonic stem cell research.

Gilmore: We have to let the courts and juries make the decisions on imprisonment.

Hunter on the environment: We should bring together colleges, universities and the private sector...to remove energy dependence on the middle east.

Huckabee: too early to give a grade to Bush's handling of the Iraq war

McCain: We need line-item veto!

McCain: Will make the authors of the first pork barrel to cross his desk famous

McCain: I never new a drunken sailor with the imagination of this congress

Tancredo: it's all about believing in your heart the things that you say. NOT being a centrist to win

Brownback on political corruption quistion: we need to rebuild the family structure! (and blames don imus)

Giuliani: George Will said he ran most conservative government in NYC

Giuliani: "Neither party has a monopoly on virtue or vice"

Tancredo: Carl Rove would not be in his White House

Hunter: his border fence is a DOUBLE fence! (not one of those little shitty ones) (btw, answer to question about being non-partisan to garner votes)

Brownback: we should invite in and celebrate faith to the public square

HUCKABEE: Those whose faith does not effect dicision making are lacking strong faith. (flip flop of what he said in previous quote)

Thompson: It's the right of businesses to fire gay employees for being gay

Paul: Overdoing military aggressiveness weakens national defense

Giuliani, now standing amongst his peers is anti-abortion

Romney: Abortion is a states rights issue

Thompson: "(Roe V Wade) should be left up to the state"

Paul on IRS: "If you want to lower taxes....you have to change police"

Hunter on Iran: "Iran has crossed the line."

McCain on Bin Laden: "I'll follow him to the gates of hell."

Romney on Bin Laden: "We need to make sure he pays for what he did" "This is a world wide jihadist movement" "He is going to pay and he is going to die!"

Gilmore on Bin Laden: "I think we need to do everything we need to do to get this guy, he is a symbol" "We have to use all abilities, diplomatic, economic and be on the moral highground"

Tancredo on protecting Israel: "If there is a threat to the existence of Israel...then you have to come to the aid of Israel"

McCain on Iran: "Iran is a state sponsor on Terrorism" "Iran poses one of the greatest threats to the world." "We cannot allow Iran to acquire nuclear weapons"

Paul on foreign policy: "Lets not pretend the Iraqis were a threat to us"

Gilmore: "We're gonna have to engage in the middle east for a long time" "There will have to be a new commitment to the Middle East."

Huckabee on Rumsfeld and Iraq: "Clearly there was a real error on judgement"

Brownback on Iraq: "We win the war by standing up for our values" "Iran is the lead sponsor of Terror on the world"

McCain on Iraq: "We need the support of the American people" "We are on the right track now. It was terribly missmanaged, but we have a new strategy and a new general."

Giuliani on Immigration: "We should solve our immigration issue with our strengths, not our weaknesses"


The Debaters:
Sam Brownback
Jim Gilmore
Rudy Giuliani
Mike Huckabee
Duncan Hunter
John McCain
Ron Paul
Mitt Romney
Tom Tancredo
Tommy Thompson

Going into this debate, these are the poll standings for the Republican front runners courtesy Rasmussen Reports:
Giuliani: 30%
McCain: 14%
Thompson: 14%
Romney: 11%


Going into this debate, the leading Republican Candidates have the following YouTube Channel Subscribers:

Giuliani: 1223
McCain: 1131
Paul: 1243
Romney: 1770

Dennis Kucinich in YouChoose Spotlight, Hits The Ground Running

John McCain's time in the YouChoose Spotlight came and went with relatively little impact. Not only did he receive just over half the viewer responses as John Edwards, but he has not replied to a single one of them. And then came Kucinich. Dennis Kucinich has managed to slide up neck and neck with McCain for subscribers after just a day of being in the YouChoose Spotlight. Granted, Kucinich put up his Spotlight video before his time in the Spotlight started, but that's just the kind of move it takes to garner support in this campaign. One of the most interesting things about YouChoose is the opportunity it creates to look at candidates as individuals and not as puppets of their respective parties. If you will, YouChoose almost acts as a multi-party primary. For young voters yet to register with a particular party, YouChoose actually offers the choice, Obama or Giuliani, McCain or Kucinich, allowing candidates to dictate party registration and not the other way around. Granted, Iraq is a polarizing issue, but the recent exit legislation support suggests that it's becoming less partisan. Anyway, who am I kidding? This entire post is just a segue to the Elizabeth Kucinich photo gallery in the post below. So without further ado, the next First Lady:

Elizabeth Kucinich Photo Gallery

Don't forget to come back at 5pm PST for live blogging of the Republican candidates debate live from the Reagan Library.

Or, see more Elizabeth Kucinich.

GOP Candidates Contemplate Their Association With Bush

Thursday night, leading GOP candidates will meet at the Ronald Reagan Presidential library for their first debate. But instead of uniting on trickle down economics or lauding our post-cold-war-era country's latest accomplishments, the main theme of the night will be the issue of whether or not each individual candidate will decide to align themselves with President Bush's current stance on topics of Iraq and health care (maybe even the environment?).

Already, the leading candidates are showing clear divisions. In formally announcing his candidacy last week, John McCain, without naming Mr. Bush, attacked the performance of the White House at home and abroad. In doing so, he separated himself from his two main rivals, Rudy Giuliani and Mitt Romney, who have chosen to stick close to Mr. Bush, or at least to avoid breaking openly with him.

The sinking ship that is President Bush's administration will yield defection sooner or later. The big question is, who jumps ship? And When?

Supporting the quagmire in Iraq does not appear to be the most prudent choice in helping anyone get elected...but what do I know. I'm just some silly little citizen. I don't really count...right?
Read more on the issue of GOP alignment here.

Barack Obama MySpace Coup

I'm sure we weren't the only ones surprised to see that Barack Obama's MySpace friends dropped from 150,000 to 13,000 overnight. Was this some sort of political tactic? Delete all his supporters and watch them grow again? We've rlearned the real explanation. According to the Associated Press:

For the past two and a half years, the page has been run by an Obama supporter from Los Angeles named Joe Anthony. At first, that arrangement was fine with the Obama team, which worked with Anthony on the content and even had the password to make changes themselves.

Finally, the Obama camp wanted exclusive control of Obama's MySpace page, a move that has sparked a very interesting and potentially landmark digital rights question. The short of it: After years of Joe Anthony maintaining essentially a fan site, garnering 150,000 MySpace supporters, he wanted to be compensated for his efforts to the tune of nearly $50,000. Obama didn't want to pay and MySpace (a wholly owned subsidiary of News Corp.) intervened and handed the site right over. So, certainly this proves a valuable lesson to Mr. Anthony. Obviously, a MySpace page is on loan to the user and can be seized at any time. This is clearly stated in MySpace's Terms & Conditions:

MySpace.com reserves the right, in its sole discretion, to reject, refuse to post or remove any posting (including private messages) by you, or to restrict, suspend, or terminate your access to all or any part of the MySpace Services at any time, for any or no reason, with or without prior notice, and without liability.

Regardless of legality, such a decision will no doubt have ramifications. It's certainly a deterrent to anyone interested in taking the time to build similar support sites of control can be revoked by the supportee at anytime without consideration for the work invested. Will this push viralroots efforts away from social networking sites and onto the web proper? If Mr. Anthony had a website instead of a MySpace page with a tool for measuring Obama support comparable to MySpace friends, would he or anyone else be in this situation?
On the flip side of the argument, if Obama gave in to Mr. Anthony's terms and paid him out his requested money, would it spawn a string of individuals maintaining such support sites for exploit and profit? An entire market could emerge of individuals speculating on future candidates and jumping to obtain their names on MySpace.

Read the Associated Press article at BreitBart.com

YouChoose '08

Just over two weeks into the inaugural YouChoose chapter of YouTube, some interesting stats are beginning to arise. Each candidate’s home page is yielding two figures for us to evaluate: the number of subscribers and the number of channel views.

In looking at the information, it seems YouChoose has not only become a chance for candidates to interact and reach the people with their ideas, it’s now also the latest tool for polling voter interest (which we theorize is a direct correlate to the actual state of candidate support).

The more classic polls have shown Hillary Clinton leading the race in the last couple months (only recently has Obama shown the numbers to match her) but the online interest at times has appeared to run contradictory to this. If interest relates to support, then Obama the rock star should keep doing what he’s doing - since this YouChoose experiment thus far continues to show... he has interest in spades.

As of today, Wednesday May 2nd, The break down is as follows, you decide (or choose) whether you believe the internet support:

1) Barack Obama
Subscribers: 5112
Channel Views: 2,793,150

2) John Edwards
Subscribers: 2501
Channel Views: 519,658

3) John McCain
Subscribers: 1065
Channel Views: 380,967

3) Hillary Clinton
Subscribers: 1740
Channel Views: 130,384

5) Rudy Giuliani
Subscribers: 1207
Channel Views: 73,229

6) Dennis Kucinich
Subscribers: 923
Channel Views: 38,038

Although this is not a perfect measure of polling, it is at the same time impossible to refute these numbers - and draw some logical conclusions. We’ll continue to monitor and keep you updated on YouChoose '08.

Barack Obama Gets Geeky With Reddit

Barack Obama will stop at nothing to draw hacker shut-ins from their damp, Pringles- and Jolt-infested caves for one Super Duper Tuesday evening in February.

Obama Moves Ahead Of Clinton

That's right, folks. Rasmussen Reports Statistic Of The Day is reporting a statistically insignificant lead for Barack Obama over Hillary Clinton. John Edwards still trails by a highly significant 13 points. Statistics from rasmussenreports.com

Video: Joe Biden Not So Nice On Bush

We're going to shove it down his throat," says Biden on the topic of the Iraq funding/withdrawal bill. The "his" being George W. Bush. More transcript of the video at Politico.com