Matthew Yglesias » Obamatube

Nov 15th, 2008 at 5:14 pm

Obamatube

Barack Obama’s first weekly radio address isn’t hugely interesting on its own terms, but the decision to release it as a video on YouTube is a small change, but also a smart and interesting one:

A new technological/media paradigm can empower politicians who are good at using it. Famously, FDR deployed the radio to great effect and though TV existed throughout the Eisenhower years, it was JFK who was the first president to really use it to great effect.

Comments
39

39 Responses to “Obamatube”

The President of the United States of America Says:
November 15th, 2008 at 5:21 pm
LEAVE AMERICA ALLLOOONEE!!
kid bitzer Says:
November 15th, 2008 at 5:26 pm
“isn’t hugely interesting in its own terms”.

another site joked that he needed to add more cute animals if he wanted a youtube hit.

but the very lack of drama and lack of flash is always part of obama’s message: understated, a little bit boring, safe, and reliable.

it wasn’t *just* a campaign strategy. the guy really prefers to work that way.
55 Says:
November 15th, 2008 at 5:37 pm
Where did you learn to write?
ly_yng Says:
November 15th, 2008 at 5:37 pm
I give it a 3 on the Hope-Meter.
pseudonymous in nc Says:
November 15th, 2008 at 5:38 pm
In the run-up to election season, people were talking about the impact of HD television coverage of debates, but it turns out that 480×320 vids at arms length may have been as significant as 1080i six feet away.
too many steves Says:
November 15th, 2008 at 5:43 pm
Man, you guys are easily impressed. So he took the weekly radio address and he videotaped himself giving it and he put it online. It’s not exactly like webcasting cabinet meetings or something. It’s a video press release instead of just an audio press release.
shaney Says:
November 15th, 2008 at 5:50 pm
All I could think about while watching it was “Hasn’t he seen Broadcast News? Pull your jacket under your butt so your shoulders have cleaner lines!”

And then I felt very bad that that was all I was thinking.
Zach Says:
November 15th, 2008 at 6:01 pm
The important thing here is that Obama’s sporting a Lenny Wilkins signed ball. What does this say about the impact of his presidency on the NBA? Will he make basketball intellect cool again and usher in a return to the era of the player-coach?

Also, I wager Obama always keeps his copies of the Public Papers of the Presidents, the JFK years within reach.
Meh Says:
November 15th, 2008 at 6:07 pm
Gah… sitting slightly off centre with a large flag lurking on the left may have lots of good subliminal presidential overtones, but I find it annoying. It’s a youtube, small viewing video… centre the camera already…
lgm Says:
November 15th, 2008 at 6:15 pm
Obama did not call for an auto industry bailout, even though he did refer to auto workers with jobs at risk. Is Obama being too cautious?
Nigel Says:
November 15th, 2008 at 7:12 pm
First, I’d like to thank my white brothers and sisters for their intelligent comments. (What is race but extended family?)

Second, I’d like to stress that Obama’s radio address perhaps is the worst in the entire history history of these United States of America – which are now in precipitous decline.

————
SIGNATURE:

The white patriot’s Coat of Arms: gens alba conservanda est (the white race must be saved)

—-

T.S. Eliot: “White Trash” is a white person who fornicates with a non-white.

—-

BARACK HUSSEIN OBAMA’S DECLARATION OF WAR AGAINST EUROPEAN AMERICANS.

Obama has supported:

(A) Reparations. Redistributing money from European Americans (Whites) to blacks, mestizos, and Asians.

(B) Criminalizing white parents who refuse to let their children practice miscegenation.

(C) Using “hate crime” laws to silence any criticism from European Americans.

(D) Using Third World immigration to overwhelm European American majorities.

(E) Maintaining anti-white affirmative action programs

(F) Creating a mandatory “America Serves” community-service program to indoctrinate and deracinate young European Americans
—-

From evolutionary philosophy email list: “Children of mixed, white-black, marriages identify 99% of the time as black and detest European Americans (whites). Why? They almost always look black (eye color, hair texture, nose shape, skin color, etc.). Obama wrote: “I found a solace in nursing a pervasive sense of grievance and animosity against my mother’s white race.”"
Hob Says:
November 15th, 2008 at 8:02 pm
Nigel, go back under your rock with the other Klan-weevils. You may be right that race is extended family, but unfortunately that just means that as a white guy, I’m stuck with having a few insane second cousins like you.

Matthew, I don’t know if you ever delete comments, but I really don’t think your site needs to be decorated with Nazi bullshit like the above.
MAX HATS Says:
November 15th, 2008 at 8:06 pm
Here comes the crazy train.
Michael Andersen Says:
November 15th, 2008 at 8:18 pm
I’ve been hearing the JFK/TV example a lot. But wasn’t Nixon the real early master of the television? “Checkers” long predated Kennedy’s debate, and Nixon had brilliant paid and earned TV campaigns in both ‘68 and ‘72, masterminded by Roger Ailes and others.
Hector Says:
November 15th, 2008 at 8:20 pm
Re: From evolutionary philosophy email list: “Children of mixed, white-black, marriages identify 99% of the time as black and detest European Americans (whites). Why?

Because they don’t want to be part of the same race as scum like you, Nigel.
Ed Marshall Says:
November 15th, 2008 at 8:20 pm
I think it’s fucking funny now. Anyone catch the story about the Klansman down in Louisiana who killed his recruit because she wanted to go home?

This woman had gotten riled up about whatever, probably Obama and joined this Klan outfit in LA. There are eight of them, the “sons of dixie” and they are out on this sandbar in the middle of nowhere chanting and marching and this woman realizes this isn’t getting anywhere and rural LA is bumming her out and Phoenix sounded too good.

When their leader who had all eight of them calling him “His Lordship” couldn’t even control his eighth member he shot her. The police had a big clue because one of his people was his lukewarm IQ son who wandered into a store asking them how to get blood out of clothes. A bunch of blood because he got covered in it trying to fish the bullet off.

This is what we are up against.
bajsa Says:
November 15th, 2008 at 8:35 pm
He does need to work on the look of the thing. But besides that, it’s an ok start at trying to use new technology.
Zach Says:
November 15th, 2008 at 8:50 pm
Did anyone else follow the link for Nigel’s name? A white supremacist think tank!
DRR Says:
November 15th, 2008 at 8:55 pm
I for one hope the President maintains a Whitehouse blog (Michelle too) as well as a structured youtube page so he can post us updates on the goings on in our government, or just whenever he’s bored and wants to blogginghead with some folks.
James Gary Says:
November 15th, 2008 at 9:02 pm
I for one hope the President maintains a Whitehouse blog (Michelle too) as well as a structured youtube page…

I hope Obama sets up a MySpace page. And if he does have one and he doesn’t friend me, I’m voting Republican in 2012.
wiley Says:
November 15th, 2008 at 9:07 pm
I don’t think this is a display of a particular technological prowess, so much as being present to a younger demographic, and perhaps a wider audience.
Nigel Says:
November 15th, 2008 at 9:31 pm
First, I’d like to thank my white brothers and sisters for their intelligent comments. (What is race but extended family?)

Second, I’d like to address the following:

Hob: My white brother, we may have some disagreements, but let’s keep fights within the family civil.

Everyone: No, I am not a member of the Klan. In fact, I have degrees from top-tier universities. You’ll be surprised. There are many like me – more European Americans becoming fed up with this politically correct nightmare and willing to speak up.

————
SIGNATURE:

The white patriot’s Coat of Arms: gens alba conservanda est (the white race must be saved)

—-

T.S. Eliot: “White Trash” is a white person who fornicates with a non-white.

—-

BARACK HUSSEIN OBAMA’S DECLARATION OF WAR AGAINST EUROPEAN AMERICANS.

Obama has supported:

(A) Reparations. Redistributing money from European Americans (Whites) to blacks, mestizos, and Asians.

(B) Criminalizing white parents who refuse to let their children practice miscegenation.

(C) Using “hate crime” laws to silence any criticism from European Americans.

(D) Using Third World immigration to overwhelm European American majorities.

(E) Maintaining anti-white affirmative action programs

(F) Creating a mandatory “America Serves” community-service program to indoctrinate and deracinate young European Americans
—-

From evolutionary philosophy email list: “Children of mixed, white-black, marriages identify 99% of the time as black and detest European Americans (whites). Why? They almost always look black (eye color, hair texture, nose shape, skin color, etc.). Obama wrote: “I found a solace in nursing a pervasive sense of grievance and animosity against my mother’s white race.”"
Ed Marshall Says:
November 15th, 2008 at 9:44 pm
There are many like me

No, there aren’t. I just spent a stupid few months being paranoid about PUMA’s because even though they didn’t show up in polling, I knew they existed and they believed they were millions of people. That’s like what goes on at your whatever your stormfront hangout has going on. They wound up being more like thousands than millions, and the internet does a good job at making you feel like you can do something or you are an influence, it’s a hallucination.
Kolohe Says:
November 15th, 2008 at 10:04 pm
The camera was kind to Kennedy, but I’d say the first president to really *use* television to great effect was Reagan.
MAX HATS Says:
November 15th, 2008 at 10:32 pm
Sorry, Nigel, hate to break the news, but most Americans just elected a black president. But don’t despair! I’m sure your poorly formatted newsletter will add nearly dozens to it’s hair-lipped, borderline retarded, largely unemployed, sex offender “master race” readership.

And it will do wonders for your sex life. Next time you’re getting your groove on all alone, pretending to be fucked in the ass by a large black man, you can actually pretend it’s the president! How awesome is that?
Jeremy Says:
November 15th, 2008 at 11:45 pm
I think it’s a good start, if I can get these off youtube, all the better since I don’t live in the US and would like to listen to what he’s got to say.

Nigel, you make me embarrassed to be white. And wtf is ‘deracinate’? Some kind of chemical?
Julian Elson Says:
November 16th, 2008 at 3:37 am
Obama may be out to destroy the white race, but at least he won’t sell us out to the Canadians like McCain would have. I don’t want to see my children laboring twelve hours a day in the maple syrup fields while Molson-swilling, hockey stick-wielding overseers beat them for any sign of disobedience.
Thlayli Says:
November 16th, 2008 at 7:24 am
My reaction was : “Now he has to shave and suit up to do a radio address. That’s just silly.”
skiddie Says:
November 16th, 2008 at 7:37 am
I’m glad to see obama has finally joined the queen in the 21st century.
duBois Says:
November 16th, 2008 at 10:31 am
Television was a 19th century invention that became commercially available long enough ago to appear in finnegans wake. (Published 1939, but mostly written during the 1920s) The first president to appear on television, IIRC, was Herbert Hoover. I think the first movie to include a television image was Metropolis which was filmed in 1928. (The images in the movie may be simulated.)
right Says:
November 16th, 2008 at 10:48 am
Television was a 19th century invention

Not sure why this is relevant but it’s not really true. While certain key aspects of television technology can be traced to the 19th century, the television as most people think of it wasn’t really invented until around 1928.
Mr. Aliquid Says:
November 16th, 2008 at 4:53 pm
He looks stiff and dull. He should borrow one of Jimmy Carter’s sweaters.
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Matt Yglesias

Obamatube

39 Responses to “Obamatube”

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