Phil Davison, who wanted to be the GOP nominee for treasurer in Stark County, Ohio, is getting his 15 minutes of fame for video of the extremely  intense speech he gave before fellow Republicans Wednesday  night. It's must-see TV for political junkies:

Sal Gentile at PBS' Need to Know blog tracked Davison down, and the would-be candidate (he didn't get the nomination) had this to say:

"My speech ... I knew it might be a little over the edge, but that's how I felt at the time. ... If it spurs someone to go on and say, 'You know what, I want to go up there and talk like that too, I want to make a difference, I want to get involved in my community.' If it affects one person in a positive way, then it was worth it."

Alexandra Petri at The Washington Post's PostPartisan blog makes an interesting point:

"Time was, someone like Phil Davison could have given this speech, and no one would have noticed. Maybe the people there might have mailed daguerreotypes of it to their friends, but that was about it. More recently, someone would have captured the audio and played it on the radio, but the video wouldn't have gone viral."

Now, of course, with the Web, YouTube and ... blogs ... a Davison or a Democratic Rep. Anthony Weiner or a Republican Sen. Ted Stevens can become as well known for a few minutes caught on video as anything else.

We do want politicians to be honest and "real," right?

Update at 4:30 p.m. ET: Davison tells the local CantonRep.com that “I consider myself an old-school politician. ... Back to the days of when you get up and tell people what you think. ... Prior to today, I didn't know what 'viral' meant or what 'Huffington Post' meant."

(H/T to Huffington Post for saving the Davison video.)

Tags: Phil Davison