Today's Wall Street Journal has a
piece on its front page (subscription only, but
silence in the comments provides
this temporary link) that serves to reinforce the simple fact that when Republicans are held accountable, it usually - heh - doesn't work out well for them.
The Journal article focuses on the work of Kevin O'Brien, a worker for the Jon Tester (DONATE) campaign, who has been following incumbent Montana Sen. Conrad Burns (R) around with a Sony camcorder, and has caught several less-than-stellar performances by Burns on video. O'Brien then edits the footage and posts it on YouTube for the world to see.
The WSJ article cites several examples of other political campaigns in addition to Tester's capitalizing on home videos of opposing candidates, posted on YouTube, and containing embarrassing (at least) slipups.
Only thing is, all of the embarrassment belongs to Republicans.
The examples listed in the WSJ article (virtually all of which are well-known to DKos readers) include:
- George Allen's infamous "macaca" moment
- Rick Santorum arguing with a woman at a parade in Pennsylvania
- Jim Talent contradicting himself on immigration
- Burns falling asleep during a farm hearing
- Burns warning about terrorists who "drive taxicabs in the daytime and kill at night"
- Burns (again!) joking about the "nice little Guatemalan man" who works at Burns's home in Virginia
- Burns stating that increased funding for body armor would "just bust the budget"
Naturally, a Burns spokesman pooh-poohs the significance of the videos:
Jason Klindt, a Burns spokesman, says, "I don't think Montanans are voting based on a YouTube ad. I don't think it has a big impact."
Which, no doubt, would explain why Burns's campaign has posted no fewer than a dozen ads on YouTube.
Oh, and why, as the article mentions, O'Brien's job has gotten more difficult now that Burns no longer posts his schedule on his website.
I was surprised to read that, unlike the majority of paparazzi, O'Brien has rules about what he will record.
He never records the Senator's private conversations. He considers fund-raisers off-limits and he generally tries to stick with any remarks Mr. Burns makes to crowds.
Republicans' storied media savvy seems to have somehow abandoned them with respect to the YouTube phenomenon. The only mention made in the Journal article of a Republican using YouTube to post candid footage of an opposing candidate is - well, actually, no mention is made of a Republican using YouTube like that, truth be told. The article does state, however, that Burns's campaign is "not ruling it out."
I can't wait.