YouTube, a political power?

…from Howard Kurtz’s column in the Washington Post

YouTube.com [is] a shoot-it-yourself Web site that has exploded in popularity over the past year. And while many of the most widely viewed videos are merely intended to entertain or titillate — rants, parodies, pet tricks, soccer brawls, singing, dancing and booty shaking — company executives say politics is on the rise.

The site’s sixth most popular group — as measured by the number of people who click to subscribe — is titled “Bush Sucks,” with 2,018 members and 741 videos. Also near the top is “Nedheads,” with 841 members signing on to a group created by activists backing Ned Lamont in his Democratic primary race against Sen. Joe Lieberman in Connecticut.

While bloggers played a role in the last presidential election, most advertising and message delivery still comes from campaigns, political parties and interest groups with enough money to bankroll a television blitz. But the YouTube revolution — which includes dozens of sites such as Google Video, Revver.com and Metacafe.com — could turn that on its head.

If any teenager can put up a video for or against a candidate, and persuade other people to watch that video, the center of gravity could shift to masses of people with camcorders and passable computer skills. And if people increasingly distrust the mainstream media, they might be more receptive to messages created by ordinary folks.

Here’s the video featured in the Kurtz column. It’s called “Stupid Bush:”

But in the spirit of full disclosure, I should point out that Kurtz says you can also find videos that pillory Hillary.

Click the big arrow, and then the little one to get the video to play.

Another nice YouTube link up at I See Invisible People.

And there’s one at Heraclitean Fire, too. Not political, this one, or at least not overtly so.

And Shamash sends us a link to a Google video she made herself. It’s a great one.

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