Columbus (OH) - Many political analysts and news writers have said that sites like YouTube will fundamentally change the way the presidential election is handled for the 2008 vote and it looks like it has started already. A new Hillary Clinton mashup video is a sign of this trend, as it has already claimed massive viewership on YouTube.
The video takes the oft-reminisced Apple "1984" Super Bowl ad and superimposes a video of part of Hillary Clinton's presidential campaign speech. The video ends with an Apple logo re-shaped to look like an "O" followed by Barack Obama's official website.
A user named "ParkRidge47" posted the video two weeks ago. It has now been viewed more than 900,000 times. After counting the number of views of the video posted by other users, it crosses the one million mark. It has sparked much political debate, including more than 2500 comments attached to the 74-second clip.
A spokesperson for Obama, Bill Burton, said that the Senator's campaign group is not responsible for the ad. "It's somebody else's creation," he said in a San Francisco Chronicle article.
The video, which looks professionally edited, is a symbol of just how heated the 2008 race is even within the same party. It also gives credence to the idea that sites like MySpace and YouTube may be some of the biggest influential outlets for the next election.
In fact, someone has already created a response to the video by creating a mashup of the same ad, but with an anti-Obama slant. The original Apple ad is also widely available on YouTube.
