Jim Gilmore Drops Out Of Race

R.I.P(S). - Rest In Private Sector

Witty, right?

Republican underdog and recent YouChoose Spotlight-er, Jim Gilmore has officially dropped out of the primary race. He cites this election's earlier primaries as the main reason. Jim Gilmore is the first to join the Viralroots Campaign Deadpool. RIP(S), Jim Gilmore.

via Politico.com (Mike Allen)

Former Virginia Gov. James S. Gilmore III is dropping his underdog bid for the Republican presidential nomination today, his top strategist, he told Politico in an interview.

Gilmore said he has been approached about running for Virginia governor a second time, and about running for U.S. Senate if Sen. John W. Warner (R) decided not to seek reelection. Gilmore said he will consider both operations. Showing his interest in Old Dominion politics, he said he will start a political action committee to support Republicans running for the state senate and House of Delegate.

In the interview, Gilmore said the punishing financial requirements of the early-starting race caused him to decide that it was "impractical" to continue. "Because of the front-loading of the primaries, I would have basically had to stop campaigning and spend full time organizing hundreds of people to raise money for me," he said.

Later, his campaign issued a statement in which he said: "I have come to believe that it takes more than a positive vision for our nation's future to successfully compete for the presidency. I believe that it takes years of preparation to put in place both the political and financial infrastructure to contest what amounts to a one-day national primary in February."

Keep reading at Politico.com

YouTube YouChoose Response Of The Week (Of The Year, Rather)

I have a new favorite YouTuber. It's Shelby Highsmith. His Video Response to Jim Gilmore is the funniest thing I've seen in a while. And I'm not just saying that because Shelby is the guy with the gun. Seriously. Check out Shelby's YouTube Channel and watch his response to Jim Gilmore:

QubeTV: Four Months Later And Still Not Savvy

It's been two months since we've covered QubeTV, the conservative alternative to YouTube. Back then, we said that the poor conservative web 2.0 presence is so much more an issue of a)savvy and b)demand, than it is of censorship. For instance, four months after launch, the Michelle Malkin video that was "banned by YouTube" (and was partly the reason QubeTV was created) still has had only 23,930 views and 110 comments. And this is the most viewed video on QubeTV ever! The second highest is at roughly 13,000. To put it in perspective, Michelle Malkin's VENT Banned by YouTube III since February has had 34,244 and 679 comments. And it's not posted on QubeTV. It's posted on what Michelle Malkin calls "Jihad Friendly" YouTube. The fact is, Michelle Malkin doesn't even post to QubeTV. And apparently, nobody else does either. Here's a look at their relative growth, or rather lack thereof:
And just as we discussed months ago, the site is still riddled with poor functionality and bugs. Look what happens when you go to their "Memes" section:
You land on a list of keywords with some sort of debug pop-up. I'm not entirely sure they know what meme means. And if you look carefully, the list includes "porn" and "iron maiden". Hmm.
And they're still missing very basic social functionality such as the ability to embed a video, social bookmark it, or send it to a friend. All you can do is Digg, but most of these videos aren't getting any Diggs. They have a Groups section, but it really should be called Message Board. It's a far cry from a Web 2.0 social feature. But don't get me wrong, I'm not saying that conservatives shouldn't have a site. I'm just saying there's zero upside to having one that is less cohesive, populated and user friendly than the conservative presence on YouTube. Jim Gilmore has a QubeTV account. His most viewed video has a whopping 80 views in a month. Gilmore's YouChoose Spotlight video has 317,000 views in less than a week. And not for nothing, YouTube exposure can seduce swing votes, which a QubeTV presence clearly will not. So all that said, if there's no young savvy conservatives willing to build a cohesive conservative video sharing site, than for better or worse conservatives are better off sticking to YouTube.

YouTube YouChoose Spotlight On Jim Gilmore

Jim Gilmore is a Republican. And from his YouChoose Spotlight video, he presents himself as a real Republican, not a neo-con. See, the modern Bush Republican is all about censorship. Just like the Liberals, they believe that the government knows best and should tell you what you can say and do and own and eat and watch. But like Ron Paul, Jim Gilmore suggests that he's an advocate of personal freedom. Yet, he only discusses First Ammendment rights as they pertain to political campaigns, the right to bear arms, and the rights of private property owners. So, I asked him about other rights, such as abortion, FCC regulations and drug use. Let's see if he responds:

Mr. Gilmore, thank you for this opportunity to discuss personal freedom. I'm glad to hear that you oppose federal government infringement on the rights of individuals.
In your video, you mention constitutional rights specific to freedom of speech, the right to bear arms, and eminent domain. As far as free speech goes, is your concern solely related to campaign speech regulation or do you believe the government oversteps boundaries regarding explicit material (sexual or otherwise) as well? In other words, should censorship be left up to governments or to parents?
As far as personal freedoms, how would you compare and contrast the right to bear arms with a woman's right to choose? And likewise with illegal drugs? Do you believe that our freedom to ingest what we want is as important as our freedom to say what we want? Thank you for your time and your willingness to engage the YouTube community.