AUSTIN — They look like television commercials for Gov. Rick Perry and Democratic challenger Bill White, but they actually are Internet videos that the campaigns and partisans churn out on a weekly basis.
They make their own candidates look superior. They make their opponent look sinister or stupid.
If the YouTube upload counts are correct, these videos have been viewed by fewer than 3 percent of the likely Texas general election voters. And one of Perry's most-viewed videos is about him shooting a coyote, while White's most-seen has less than 8,000 views.
Upload counts? I think you mean download. Upload is people putting videos up. Download is watching it....
I wish that Rick's peeps had left the Kay videos up... those were some good stuff... remember the one about the event where she had under 10 people there... with "All By Myself" playing... that one really made her look pathetic... the one right at the end with that Earmark Queen parody to the tune of Abba's Dancing Queen had several tens of thousands of views before they took all of the anti-Kay videos down on either the day after the primary or maybe even the day of... I am not sure. Either way, it would be one I might play again from time to time if it were still up...
The anti-Rick videos from the Democrats are pretty funny and much better than the ones from Kay's peeps, but I am not sure they have much substance... they kind of just scream, "we don't like Rick personally..." They mock his hair. They mock his gestures. Only a few have touched on any actual issues...
The chicken suit was a good investment at 75 dollars (link), but it will only go so far... every other time the chicken suit is mentioned the fact that Bill White still has not released his taxes comes up as well... so you have to wonder whether it really is a net wash or even a negative.
Rick's anti-White videos have been hit or miss so far... a couple of them have been extremely well done, spot on, and solidly produced... and even funny or creative... but others have seemed slapped together by committee... too much crap thrown into one video... no coherent theme to tie it together...
A lot of the anti-Rick Democrat videos have been pretty bad too... more than just message wise... they are just hard to watch through to the end...
It is one thing to have bad production quality... this is web video we are talking about... but some of them on both sides just seem like they were made on a deadline to fit a schedule rather than made with the flow of events...
I would make one observation here though as a veteran of decades in politics... in any campaign, a tiny fraction of your voters will end up being your contributors, your volunteers, and all of that. No more than 5 or 10% of your volunteers and contributors will provide 80 or 90% of the volunteer hours and contributions to your entire campaign...
That works for other things too... not just politics...
A small segment of the population adopts certain technologies and trends earlier than others... some call them early adopters. If the cool kids are all going to see Twilight or Harry Potter, the other kids will too...
They are the peeps who are watching these videos. The political junkies... the insider class of early political adopters including journalists, lobbyists, activists, and bloggers... the videos watched by thousands are shaping the way they view the race, and those people are going out and shaping the way everyone else views the race.
One thing I find interesting is that mainstream journalists link to these videos a lot... they even embed them sometimes... yet the videos only have hundreds or maybe thousands of views? What does that say about the value of a link on these major newspapers?
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Hey now, campaign characters. Be nice. I know a lot of you on both sides, so I don't want any overly foul language, personal attacks on anyone other than the candidates themselves, or other party fouls. I will moderate the heck out of you if you start breaking the bounds of civility.