Dean Barnett plucked this quote from liberal General, Kos.
Here's Kos' full post:
Every appearance by a top Republican official or candidate should be recorded. Every one of them.
All it takes is one "Macaca" incident to transform a race or create one where one didn't exist. As the Montana incident blogged earlier today showed, a video can knock out prospective candidates before they even enter.
And this is no longer about finding one big blunder to put on a campaign commercial. It's about using video and (free) technologies like YouTube to build narratives about opponents, using their own words, at their own events.
It's never too early to start.
We've got a long, difficult slog ahead of us next year. The more material we amass today, the better we'll able to use that video to support our efforts next year.
Barnett has some noteworthy conclusions noting that Republicans need to be doing the same. And I agree.
So who out there is ready to start coordinating this effort? I know that the good folks at MajorityAP.com (a client of mine), are working on this project.
All it takes is a camera or a new cell phone. I'll teach you the rest.
Email Brady and Giuliani today and get involved.
UPDATE May 23; 10:50 AM: My good friend Matt Margolis disagrees with this strategy suggesting that this is merely a reversion to "gotcha" politics:
I'd much rather see Republicans win on ideas than see Democrats lose because of some video showing an unflattering moment they'd sooner forget.
Though I respect his opinion, I strongly disagree with Margolis. Citizen journalism, or campaign volunteers/staff tracking candidates is not a "new" idea for campaigns. The difference is now with YouTube, the material can actually be distributed making minor flip-flops a serious problem.
The bottom line is that any serious campaign effort - from City Council to POTUS - should have a two camera strategy -- one on the opponent and one on their own guy to help add context to a "macaca" moment and "flood the zone" to deflate organic YouTube search results.
These aren't "gotcha" politics. These are modern tactics for modern times.
And the point of my argument is that I'm not convinced that if a Democratic candidate has a "macaca" moment, we'll have a camera there to capture it. I hope I'm wrong.
UPDATE May 23; 11:14 AM: Dean Barnett has also responded to Margolis. Again, I agree with Dean.
Comments
Good idea
This is a smart strategy that both Democrats and Republicans should agree on. Think about the benefits from both campaign and grassroots perspectives. It's cheap and easy for supporters to do. It creates early buy-in from the hardcore base. It can help identify leaders. It creates community and generates online to offline action. Most importantly it builds a personal connection between the supporter and the campaign. From a campaign strategy, you're getting hundreds of hours of footage for free. Plus, it's more fun than phonebanking or stuffing envelopes.
Media Angle
It's great to use YouTube and other video sites, but one thing should be kept in mind by conservatives - the media plays what it wants to, and that is almost always going to be Republican mistakes, not Democratic ones.
The video of John Murtha threatening a Republican lawmaker with having his earmarks yanked shows on YouTube, and the House pretends nothing happened.
Imagine Denny Hastert doing that last year.
Recording politicians is a good thing, but we have to improve our delivery channels as well.
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