techPresident points me to this LA Times article from the end of January (how did I miss this?) on John McCain’s new Internet reality TV project:
McCain is planning his own Web version of reality TV. He has hired a videographer to record behind-the-scenes campaign moments of the senator in relaxed settings.
It appears that this weekend’s Straight Talk Express bus tour was the beginning of this. The McCain camp has uploaded several of these types of clips to his YouTube channel. This is truly a revolutionary development in politics. Harnessing the power of instant video by providing the average person with the type of unscripted access that was only available to the wealthy donor in the past.
McCain even granted GreenMountainPolitics1, a premier New Hampshire political blog, a 50 minute interview:
When we stepped onto The Bus in Milford John Weaver told us, “Clacker, you recognize that we are running the most open and accessible Presidential campaign ever?”
Then Weaver smirked (much the way we have smirked writing about him and his boss over the last 5 months), clapped us on the shoulder and moved us along towards the the Senator in back.
But Weaver wasn’t being funny. McCain is running the most open and accessible campaign ever. Everything about the campaign screams “ACCESS!”.
We got 50 minutes of the Senator’s time (50 minutes!). And we’re just a humble Blogspot blog.
McCain is bypassing the traditional venues used to filter out important campaign information to the country and is instead taking his message straight to the grassroots where it has the greatest impact.
March 19th, 2007 at 6:14 pm
I don’t know if it can work, but it’s a very interesting strategy. CPAC attendees already made up their minds about who they’d support even before they arrived. Same goes for Club for Growth – they ain’t McCainiacs, that’s for sure. So skip those venues and hit Letterman, YouTube and small grassroots groups. I hope it works, not just for McCain, but for political campaigns in general. Great way to get the attention of the non-committed average voter who isn’t tivo-ing 2008 campaign programming on CSPAN while watching coverage of appropriation subcommittee hearings on CSPAN-II.
March 19th, 2007 at 6:17 pm
This is very smart of McCain.
This would be a great strategy for Rudy, too. Paging Patrick Ruffini…
March 19th, 2007 at 7:55 pm
This would be a great strategy for every candidate. Say what you will about Howard Dean (and there’s a lot to say) he knew how to reach average people, and it wasn’t by attending conventions of like-minded people. The internet has made politics accessable to everyone – proof of that is this very blog among thousands out there spanning both sides of the spectrum. Any candidate not taking the internet route of campaigning seriously does so at his or her own peril.
March 19th, 2007 at 9:19 pm
Of course he got a 50 minute interview.
That’s because the GreenMountainPolitics1 blogger is dating Sarah Crawford, McCain’s northeastern regional political director.
March 19th, 2007 at 10:33 pm
Hahaha if that’s true it’s one of the funniest things I’ve heard yet in this election season.
March 20th, 2007 at 3:44 am
This strategy looks alot like what Justin Germany helped pioneer for Bush-Cheney in 2004.
I look forward to this open-style of campaigning, and hope some of the other candidates will take a few notes.
March 20th, 2007 at 1:37 pm
McCain ought to be careful people don’t notice how old he can really look, unscripted and unmake-upd!
March 20th, 2007 at 3:09 pm
[...] at Race42008.com captures this sentiment well in a post titled, “The McCain Show.” On the other side of the coin, New Media can torpedo a campaign, if used covertly. If you [...]