Forget "Swiftboated". New political lexicon: "YouTubed"

[zulchzulu]

IMHO, the term "swiftboated" shall probably be a political term used historically for the 2004 election.

What has happened to George Allen (macaca), Hillary Clinton (national anthem) and all the other cast of characters on the political landscape shall be termed "YouTubed".

You'd refer to an event that occurred on the campaign trail where a candidate slips, gaffes or fumbles words and in nearly all cases has the moment captured on video as one getting "YouTubed".

It's very easy to grab video, upload it and have it ubiquitously shared globally in a matter of minutes. What's difficult is getting the damage control team for a candidate to spin the captured moment as merely a ________ (fill in the blank) that makes the event seem meaningless or minimal.

The problem is that the YouTubed video will now be available at all times and possibly have a cumulative effect, such as the endless running of the Swiftboat ads in 2004 that had been debunked months before.

Biden was fortunate (so far) to not have his Obama Praise statement captured on video...perhaps it was.

Candidates running for President in 2008 might want to consider having videotaping at events controlled or not allowed. That can be very hard to control with cell phones being able to capture the embarrassing moment.

[karynnj]

1. There's a huge distinction between swiftboating and U-tubed

U-tubed, by definition, really happened. Some will just by fluff, like Hillary singing - there are more of us who sing badly, than well, others hurt because they can show people saying different things to different groups or misbehaving.

That is not swiftboating, which was based on lies.

[zulchzulu]

2. True...but I'm also referring to repetition and gotcha issues

I couldn't agree more that the swiftboating was based on lies. The worst part about that was that the ads were allowed to repeat well after they were debunked.

Issues like how well Mrs. Clinton sings or Biden's unfortunate statement about Obama, while embarrassing, should not make either candidate "out of the running". Of course, singing out of tune is not exactly the same "damage" as the minefield Biden created.

For me, getting "YouTubed" means having that footage of you being flawed repeated over and over again, well past the spin cycle.

[AtomicKitten]

3. You Tube definitely facilitates "gotcha" journalism.

But it is not propagation and punctuation of a lie, of course, which is the essence of "swift-boating."