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Hillary Clinton, 1984, Barack Obama, 1984
There is quite some controversy surrounding a video, published at YouTube, made by Barack Obama supporters attacking Hillary Clinton. Hillary Clinton responded by saying: “I haven’t seen it but I’m pleased that it seems to be taking attention away from what used to be on YouTube and getting a lot of hits, namely me singing ‘The Star Spangled Banner.’ Everybody in the world now knows I can’t carry a tune. I thank heavens for small favors and the attention has shifted, and now maybe people won’t have to tune in and hear me screeching about ‘The Star Spangled Banner’.” She added on a more serious note: “I think anything that drives interest in these campaigns and get people who otherwise are not at all interested in politics, I think that’s pretty good. I might quibble a little bit about the content, but if we get more people, especially young people, thinking about politics, I’m happy about that.”
Interestingly enough, not long after the anti-Hillary video was published, a somewhat similar anti-Obama video appeared on YouTube, made by Hillary supporters.
A new video called “Barack 1984″ projects Obama on the Big Brother screen, flush with confidence yet poised to lose, just like his favorite football team. The ad ends with the warning, “The Bears Lost So Will Obama.” Riding the buzz, it is Tuesday’s most viewed video in YouTube’s “News and Politics” section, and the 8th most popular YouTube video overall. By reversing the premise of the Hillary spoof, the video provides what columnist Joe Klein imagined on Monday: “I could put together a reel of Obama sound bites that sounds every bit as trite as Hillary in this guerrilla mashup. But I wouldn’t have the skills or sensibility to do it this way; very few in my generation would.”
You all know me as someone who detests the uberaggressive type of debate, the uberpartisanship, etc. that seems to be dominant in the U.S. right now… but I have to admit that I laughed about these two videos and about Hillary Clinton’s reaction. She did the right thing, I think, by treating it as some kind of joke, by not taking it seriously.
That being said, these videos are yet another sign of increasingly aggressive debates. Not just between the two major American political parties, but even within individual parties. This is, in my opinion, not a good thing. The debate should be about policies, about content, not about this kind of nonsense.
It’s entertainment, not politics.
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8 Responses to “Hillary Clinton, 1984, Barack Obama, 1984”
I thought the video kind of clever. I left it remembering just how wonky hot a busty hammer-thrower could be in a dull setting.
The video itself was fun to watch. I didn’t go into it expecting an attack, and I left it admiring the creativity of the piece.
It’s worth seeing, but if this is the worst attack out there this two-year presidential campaign (it won’t be), we’re in for a happy road.
…That was the best anti-Obama ad someone could come up with? He was flashing a million dollar grin at the end for chrissakes. It’s hard to be against these ads when it actually prompted a response from Hillary that sounded genuinely funny and self-deprecating; good thing I was sitting since I almost felt faint.
Personally I’m not against all emotional negative ads as long as they address actual governance. The biggest criticisms against Hillary are that she’s cold, calculating and parses her words to try to convince everyone she’s on their side. You can argue whether these are true, but I personally think they would affect her governing and capturing this through a reference to one of the greatest ads ever created (itself an allusion to one of the greatest novels of the 20th century that’s becoming more and more apropos) should be applauded. I look forward to Kafkaesque ads against Romney (who’s supported Bush’s “interrogation methods”). For a lot of people Obama is like the preacher from the show “Carnivale,” not a historical work of art perhaps but that character was one of the more interesting ones I’ve seen.
In general it’ll also be easier for creative positive messages to go out…it’ll be interesting to see if these catch on closer to the election.
It’s quite likely that these videos and others like them were created by individual people not related to the campaigns. YouTube provides the same sort of grass roots voice that blogs do.
You should know from reading comments that the discussion can get pretty aggressive, I didn’t think these were even close to what I read in these posts everyday.
Like it or not, this is the electorate getting involved in the discussion.
This Hillary 1984 video is getting way overhyped. There are important issues out there more important than
clever little internet ad campaigns with no real message, especially one that isn’t even original.
The video is as hyped now as lightweight Obama. The childish as well as often-stupidly-naive-liberal NUT-roots really need to grow up (many “bloggers,” too). Neither Weblogs nor videos nor stem cell research nor Obama’s young, fresh minority face constitute a miracle or redefinition of politics in this country.
The ad ends with the warning, “The Bears Lost So Will Obama.�
But does Obama have a radically inconsistent quarterback?
Huffington Post has the scoop on who and why. Phillip de villis is his name and he blogged about on Huffington.
You want politics, policies and content?
Willie Nelson, Merle Haggard, Woody Harrelson and Barack Obama have it all going on here:
http://youtube.com/watch?v=vLcBHzEEicE