11 comments

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  Daniel Gibbons

  1 year ago

  My take is that the Yes We Can backlash is more a case study in how the online commentary can over analyze a story to death. Relative to old-style campaigning, the Obama video is massively significant.
  
  Sure, the video might be over the top and self-indulgent, but the NYT has a great op-ed by Frank Rich (http://www.nytimes.com/2008/02/10/opinion/10ric...), contrasting Yes We Can with Hillary's Hallmark TV special, which was watched by almost no-one and barely discussed anywhere. I think the story remains that on the one side we have a tidal wave of online coverage of a video that cost the Obama campaign absolutely nothing, and on the other a struggling Clinton campaign mired in old-school thinking.
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  Ryan Sholin

  1 year ago

  I'm going to go *way* out on a limb here and guess that commentary both pro- and anti- Yes We Can video is being made by folks with a political point of view.
  
  Does the fact that this is the first I've heard of any "backlash" reveal something about my own political POV? Maybe, maybe not.
  
  Either way, what would the Hillary Clinton equivalent be, and who would be in the video? Would it have had the same effect, if any?
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  Cynthia Brumfield

  1 year ago

  Mathew,
  
  The "backlash" to the video you cite is entirely phony and ginned up for political reasons. I would suspect that every political consultant wishes he or she had thought of it. Remember, we're in the master spin zone now.
  
  That video has done more to mobilize young people (does anybody have stats on the number of times it has been posted on Facebook pages?) than anything else I've seen so far in this election.
  
  High school seniors here in Maryland are able to vote in the primary on Tuesday here in Maryland if they turn 18 by November 3, 2008 and that video has become a senior thing -- Yes We Can is now their mantra.
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  mathewi

  1 year ago

  I'm not sure it is entirely phony, Cynthia -- some of it came from
  people I know personally, in many cases Obama supporters. But there's
  no question there is a political spin element as well. The main thing
  that interested me was simply the speed, not so much the reaction
  itself.
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  Karoli

  1 year ago

  To me, the commentary around the video is typical of most Web2.0 pundits. It is especially obvious when a new service, company, idea, etc. is unleashed and the first wave of Techmeme-linked posts likes it. The second wave, left with nothing new to say, starts looking for ways to criticize it. After about 48 hours, what you have is a lot of noise with a few gold nuggets on both sides.
  
  In the case of the video, I agree with Cynthia Brumfield's analysis that every campaign wishes they'd thought of it first. That maxim applies to much of the Web 2.0 commentary I see, too, especially with the simpler webapps. I was a vocal, vocal Twitter critic when it first came out, thinking that it was dumbed-down IM. It took me awhile and a pretty vocal blog post about it to come around to the idea that it really did have a great purpose and was elegant in its simplicity. Part of my initial dislike came from the starry-eyed commentary of robert scoble and others about what ground-breaking technology it was.
  
  With everyone scratching for an angle to blog about in politics, technology and other hot areas, it's inevitable that a cycle such as the one you describe would come about. The real question is whether discerning readers can separate the worthwhile opinions from the ones that are less so, and make intelligent decisions.
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  mathewi

  1 year ago

  Well, Karoli -- maybe now that the success-story-to-backlash cycle has
  been sped up to the point where it only takes a matter of hours, we
  can move on to real meaning and intelligent decisions a little sooner
  than in the past :-)
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  Karoli

  1 year ago

  That would be nice. :) The real story that you touched on slightly in your post is how the campaigns are leveraging Web 2.0 and mobile resources to keep the masses motivated. The Obama campaign has made great use of YouTube, Flickr, CafePress, Twitter, mobile messaging, blogging and social networking to mobilize the masses into action. For a web junkie like me, it's a sight to behold.
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  Cynthia Brumfield

  1 year ago

  Mathew,
  
  After I posted that comment, I realized that the "entirely phony" statement was bad phrasing on my part. I suspect that some people do find it a little cheesy. But, there is no doubt that it has been effective and there's no doubt that some of the criticism is politically motivated.
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  mathewi

  1 year ago

  I think you are probably right, Cynthia.
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  AnnB

  1 year ago

  Interesting indeed, but isn't it just an information cascade on the internet? We'll have to wait and see if the "verdict "on this particular video sticks, or what readjustments will take place now that both points of view are available for people to agree or disagree with.
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  antje wilsch

  1 year ago

  well again the bloggers gotta go nuts by being controversial...
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