Clinton Video Leads to Unintentional Guffaws
This story just goes to prove that the road to hell in the blogosphere is paved with good intentions.
Last August, Gene Wang, Silicon Valley executive (he handles the overseas marketing for Hewlett-Packard's handheld division) and ardent Sen. Hillary Clinton supporter, decided to do something to support her. Last August he got together a lot of young people and some musicians (including himself - he plays the flute)and some video makers and he created "Hillary4U&Me."
He uploaded the video to YouTube and it sat there for a while ... through the late summer, through the fall fund raising follies, through Obama's victory in Iowa, through the Clinton comeback in New Hampshire, through Super Tuesday and the Potomac Primaries ... but on the Internet, nothing remains buried for long.
Maybe it was the recent video by Will.i.am for Obama, with its high-powered film and music stars and slick production values, that made people look for other "music videos" about the candidates. Whatever the reason, "Hillary4U&Me" was rediscovered this week. The result was a bloodbath.
The video quickly became fodder for the kind of attacks that one can only find in the blogosphere. The reaction was so negative, some bloggers actually put forward the theory that it was created by the Obama camp to discredit Clinton.
The video itself? Think "Up with People" in the Nixon-era. Here it is:
But to his credit, Wang is not backing down. He told The New York Times that he's proud of the work he's done.
"I do agree that some of the Obama videos are better. But we have the better candidate by far," he wrote in an e-mail message. He added: "For all the naysayers, I'd like to see their YouTube music video."He believes that the criticism is born of the antagonism some Obama supporters feel toward Clinton. And, far from being discouraged, he said the critics have inspired him: "It kind of makes me want to do another one."
Er, maybe that needs a little more thought.
10:51 AM ET | 02-15-2008 | permalink

