"Why should candidates, or issue groups, spend millions on traditional advertising when they can generate hundreds of thousands of hits from simply uploading a video? Take, for example, the Hillary Clinton campaign's use of a Soprano’s spoof to unveil a campaign theme song....she generated a stunning amount of favorable press and television coverage (not to mention millions of dollars worth of free advertising)."^* A well produced video distributed on the Web can have great impact. For example, in a dispute last year a United Steelworkers union video forced Goodyear back to the bargaining table. A new video produced by the International Association of Firefighters may have impact on Rudy Guiliani's campaign for President. "...[The video's] release on the Internet hints at a broadening effort to spread [the union's] dim assessment of the Mayor and has already drawn comparisons with the campaign by the Swift Boat Veterans for Truth against John Kerry in 2004."^*
posted by ericb on Jul 11, 2007 - 52 comments

The anti-Kerry book Unfit for Command is #1 on Amazon. Unfortunately, the book, not even released, has entered the downward spiral of diminished credibility of its authors. The "Swift Boat Veterans for Truth" have been found to include a man who changed his story right after Kerry entered the race and another who flat-out retracts his accusations. Meanwhile, another SBVfT member has accused Kerry of not really deserving his Bronze Star because the events leading to it never occured... even though the Veteran recieved a Bronze Star for the same day's events he claims now never happened.
posted by XQUZYPHYR on Aug 6, 2004 - 101 comments