Most Effective?

Is this the most effective video political ad this cycle?



Not made by a professional consultant. Succinct master narrative that's been with us all along: please, God, not 4 more years of Bush. If McCain can't escape that noose, his candidacy is over. And I don't see the "We are all Georgians" thing registering positively with Americans. Far more Americans are from Russian heritage than from that new country we can't find on the map.

We don't want more war. Bottom line. We want to heal, have needed to since 9/11, but the Cheney/Bush/Rumsfeld/Rove policies made that impossible. McCain claims maverick but it's not there in the votes. And that will be what kills him.

I have a VP prediction: the announcement will not come until the Convention. And it may even be the first night, and maybe Barack is there. At the very moment that everybody's cellphone goes off.

The cellphones will go off all across America, wherever anyone has texted VP to 62262. In homes and restaurants and campuses and streets.

They will go off in Denver. Both outside and inside the convention center. At the dais.

While someone very well regarded is speaking.

21st Century political theater -- imagine the feeling in the room. Imagine watching the reactions of all the delegates live on TV.

Just a thought.

Upsets

Sweet, sweet news for a New York Giants fan who grew up with a father getting crushed by Giants losses on the couch every Sunday in the '60's. So the New England Patriots went 19-0 all season and were defeated in a tough but definitive fight, decided in the final moments, by a young upstart quarterback with talent and audacity.

Sound anything like a brand new leader going up against a known winner with a 40+ point poll advantage a year ago today?

Try dead-even?

Big news today for the Barack Obama campaign came in the very same space that Hillary Clinton filled yesterday at UCLA, only this time if was five women including his wife, Caroline Kennedy, Oprah Winfrey and their surprise guest, the movingly articulate First Lady of California (and a prime example of cross-party cooperation herself), Maria Shriver. Video here.

The movement is growing and includes self-described New York feminists unhappy with Sen. Clinton's record and plans on the Iraq War:

We base our judgment on her seven-year record as the Senator from New York. As a member of the Senate Armed Services Committee, she has carefully identified herself as a supporter of a strong, enlarged and proactive military. In 2002, she voted to authorize the "use of force" against Iraq, while voting against an amendment that would have mandated further diplomacy. In subsequent years, she expressed enthusiastic support for the war effort, objected to fixed timelines for the withdrawal of U.S troops and until last summer voted for the "unconditional funding" of the war.

Under pressure from the Democratic base, Senator Clinton has recently issued numerous statements about bringing the troops home "responsibly" But her actual plan would leave tens of thousands of Americans soldiers in Iraq over a period of many years. Her record of embracing military solutions and the foreign policy advisers she has selected make us doubt that she will end this calamitous war.

There's no doubt where the momentum is right now, what W's dad called, un-ironically, "The Big Mo." The only questions are whether the absentee ballots thwart certain victories and if there's some sort of momentum killing surprise on the way.

A number of people have sent me links to the "Yes We Can" video, so I've posted it below for anyone who's missed it as well as the historical record. But before playing that particular unofficial music video, here's an ad created and broadcast by the Clinton campaign, which by the end of March might turn into a metaphor for her candidacy itself:



Yep, the fear card. Maybe Karl Rove could freelance for the campaign, or whoever created Rudy's death-spiral ads.

The contrast with the user-created videos, like the one I posted the other night, inspired rather than fashioned by the Obama campaign, could not be starker:



I'm open. Somebody ping me when some fans set a Hillary Clinton (or John McCain) speech to music.

Song Crazy

This could be a banner year for pop singles, as I've already related getting hooked on "Rehab" and now there's a new tune on my block.

I needed something to knock that Journey song from the last-ever scene of The Sopranos out of my circular thought pattern and the radio gods have delivered Sean Kingston's terrifyingly addictive "Beautiful Girls".

There's the jarring "You'll have me suicidal, suicidal" line in a bed of 1960's style reggae, a unique callback to the days when The Wailers sounded like doo-wop with a 2/4 Jamaican beat, with the dollop of Ben E. King's "Stand by Me" hitting our collective unconscious somewhere in the solar plexus.

What blew me away today was not just that other people are getting hooked as well, but that they're making their own videos about it. In a variety of genres. Like, in dozens.

I've linked below to some of this first dozen, with a little description of each. It's roughly in preferential order (best first) but they're all fascinating, especially if you like the song.

If you're already sick of the song, they're at least interesting models for what sure to continue coming, a viral world of insta-video self-expression that adds richness to the pop experience. People are exposing their real emotions whether singing, dancing or cutting together animation, and there's a beautiful innocence, even of some of the civilian artists seems like they're doing some of life the hard way.

Anime Version
What I love about this one is how it makes the big-eyed anime characters seem more affecting than I'd imagine in their original movies, with their original scores and Japanese sentimentality. Here, shorn of color, to the Jamaican doo-wop beat, they're tragically moving ciphers for our modern age.

Two 12-Year Olds Version
These two girls actually sing, doing it very straight, I'm guess the computer open to the lyrics in their collective lap which they glance to occasionally. Maybe the most charming part at the end, where the song intentionally goes into a sudden slow-down-and-stop, and they break their webcam personas, exchanging glances and breaking each other up.

Stand by Me/BG "Remixxx" Version
Nice acoustic guitar version that deconstructs the Ben E. King DNA of the song by starting with it and segueing into the Sean Kingston tune.

Girl Spinning Around the Room Version
This one isn't the whole song, which is actually one of its charms. It's a young woman holding the camera very steadily on her face as she dances, spinning around her room. Like a really good shot in a Spike Lee movie. She's so unpretentious expressing her joy for the song in movement, a really good use of the camera.

Lion King Version
Mustafa and Simba, and some pretty good fake syncing along the way, you wonder how the creator got inspired with this idea.

Sleepy Guy BeatBox Version
Pretty credible wee hours solo beat-boxing to the first half of the track before our hero hits the hay.

Two Girls Chipmunk Version
Fast is good.

Three Buddies Version
Nice to see a trio: voice (ouchie as it goes on), beat-box and unplugged electric guitar. Three friends up late get an idea?

Girl Who Falls at End Version
Worst vocal, best ending.

And, if your interested in the man himself and what seems to have been a very tough life getting started, and want to see him interviewed in the non-fame way he won't have the next time:

Sean Kingston Interview Pt 1

Maybe the ultimate appeal of the song is in the first two lines:

You're way too beautiful girl
That's why it'll never work

Have truer words ever been sung?