Trying to be cool

So in an effort to connect to you and me in this Web 2.0 world that we live, politicians have take to showing up and showing up often. I was looking to YouChoose '08 on YouTube and it is interesting to see how the different presidential candidates have chosen to communicate on that site. They each have posted an introductory video of "Hello America, this is me, I want to be your next president...blah blah... thank you to YouTube for giving me this chance to communicate with you...blah blah..." Some of these vidoes they decided to go for a causal look, jeans and polo in a parking lot in Iowa. Some of these videos they went presidential and stuffy in a suit, behind a desk with pictures of their kids in the background. And then there were a lot of random speeches and footage of them on the campaign trail. Some of them got on this band wagon sooner than others. Below is a list of the candidates that are on YouChoose '08, when they joined, and how many videos they currently have posted. John Edwards 101 Videos 12 months ago

Hillary Clinton 45 Videos 11 months ago

Barack Obama 118 Videos 10 months ago

Mike Gravel 37 Videos 9 months ago

Chris Dodd 107 Videos 6 months ago

Mitt Romney 208 Videos 6 months ago

Bill Richardson 51 Videos 5 months ago

Joe Biden 123 Videos 5 months ago

Rudy Giuliani 51 Videos 4 months ago

Dennis Kucinich 58 Videos 4 months ago

Ron Paul 26 Videos 4 months ago

Duncan Hunter 18 Videos 4 months ago

Sam Brownback 20 Videos 4 months ago

Jim Gilmore 15 Videos 4 months ago

John McCain 50 Videos 4 months ago

Mike Huckabee 41 Videos 3 months ago

Tommy Tancredo 82 Videos 3 months ago

And what I found to be very interesting from a first mover perspective is that 8 out of the first 10 candidates to join this forum were from the Democratic party. But Mitt Romney, the first from the Republican field to make a name for himself on YouTube wasted no time getting as many clips up as possible and currently has almost twice as many as the next closest contender. But is this how they are going to reach you and me? On the same site that I can watch kids blowing stuff up, the loudest fart in the tenth grade, and last night's Leno routine? I think that while YouTube has added a nice addition to their site, the candidates are going to get lost amongst all the other noise of the site. And I don't even want to start with MySpace, except to say that Tom is friends with all of the candidates, Hillary has the more friends than Barack, and I think that Rudy's page rocks for having "Hail to the Chief" as his theme song. The intention is there, they all know they need to be alive and well in the Web 2.0 world, but honestly they haven't got my attention any more than any of the other randoms 'broadcasting themself' and occupying my space and my place for friends.