YouTube Impacting Political Landscape

Aug. 22 - KGO (KGO) -- If you're just getting up to speed on blogging, get ready because blogging has gone visual, and it's reshaping the political landscape. Political candidates beware. Every misstep on the campaign trail can now be recorded and played out to the entire world, by anyone.

YouTube is a Web site where you can post videos or watch videos for free. Founded last year in a garage in Menlo Park, they're headquartered now in San Mateo and taking in 65,000 videos a day and playing out 100 million every day. And when it comes to political video clips, YouTube is having a big impact.

Senator George Allen of Virginia knows all about YouTube, but too late. Allen meant to embarrass an opponent's campaign worker who was video taping his stump speeches.

Senator George Allen: "Let's welcome macaca here."

Instead, Allen embarrassed himself, calling the campaign worker who was of Indian decent "macaca," which turns out is a little known racial slur. Within hours his gaff was on YouTube, and shortly after that it was everywhere. On YouTube you can see the Senator's slip-up, his apology, the reactions, all of it.

Robert Gardiner Maiden Lane Inc.: "With YouTube, I mean bang, it's out there. You send it to your friends, they send it to their friends, the press picks it up."

Bob Gardiner, advertising expert and Republican media consultant: "If you're a handler you're always telling the candidate the camera is always on, the mic is always on."

The problem, says Gardiner, is people forget that advice. Even the president was caught making undiplomatic remarks in front of an open mic at the G8 summit and then giving the German chancellor an unwanted backrub. Both can be seen on YouTube.

Alex Clemens, Barbary Coast Consulting: "Now with the Internet, everything is right there and the permanent record is there for anybody to see at any time."

Alex Clemens runs a government relations consulting firm in San Francisco. He says the YouTube phenomenon is getting a lot of attention right now. But it's not likely to change the political landscape long-term.

Alex Clemens: "As the technology expands people pay attention, remember the first email you got from someone involved in politics. Wow that was groundbreaking."

But after 1,000 emails, it's less interesting, says Clemens.

Both he and Gardiner believe YouTube-like sites, along with the blogisphere, will play a part in political campaigns, but not a staring role.

The ones we'll remember will be the really bad ones. And those could kill a candidate. Allen may be able to shore up his base and make a run for the White House. Two years can be a long time in politics, but there are cases we've seen in the past couple of weeks where a candidate on YouTube has skuttled his career.

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