Get Me Out of Here

I've been holed up in the attic editing videos all week, and while clips load and transitions render I've been surfing around YouTube and RealClearPolitics, reading and watching whatever I find.

As a result of working for VoteGopher.com, a website that compares the presidential candidates on the issues, I have learned a great deal about John McCain and Barack Obama on policies that matter a lot to me. Using VoteGopher's "My Ballot" feature and opting not to put unduly high emphasis on "Message" or "Controversies," my results came out to be a tie—22 points for McCain, 22 points for Obama.

To be honest, I was floored by those results. Back in June I took a similar candidate quiz and, though by a small margin, favored Obama. After spending hours and hours editing 25 videos comparing Obama and McCain head-to-head, things are getting a lot closer in my mind.

After hearing McCain and Obama talk about terrorism, Iraq, and Afghanistan on the campaign trail countless times, I no longer see Obama's move to pull out of Iraq immediately as a good thing, and after reading this today I wonder if Obama's foreign policy plans aren't based on some popular assumptions about Afghanistan as "the right war."

Now that I've sorted through position videos and papers about the two candidates' positions on education, I wonder if McCain is really leading the way by proposing to move towards the use of vouchers. This article makes it seem as if Obama's plan is a little "old school" in an un-Obama kind of way.

And on energy, I'm not convinced that we shouldn't explore options for certain domestic oil drilling projects. It seems stubborn to rule out cleaner and safer oil drilling as a healthy complement to the widespread introduction of alternative energies in the United States. McCain has long intrigued me on the issue of the economy, but he's now starting to convince me.

On top of it, all I seem to hear about Obama recently is "Speech in Berlin" and "Open Convention!" Not to mention a stead stream of creepy, Obama-cult garbage like this video on YouTube:

[If we're accusing Obama of having a big ego, we should label Will.I.Am and all the other celebrity political preachers in his videos similarly]



Give me an open road to Maine, some McCain events, and two days or so to clear my head from Obama—he and I really need some time apart.

Unnecessary

...Especially because McCain has very talented video folks working for him and has a whole slew of classier web ads and TV spots he could be putting out there. It's in these below-the-belt videos against Obama that McCain stands to lose credibility among crucial voting blocks, and I would much rather see either of the videos below than more of the "Obama doesn't support the troops" baloney:

Terrific

[Watch Part II]

[Watch Part III]

Mission Accomplished

Al Gore in Words and Images: A Profile

This week's profile is a video I created using footage I spent a weekend collecting from around Massachusetts and the words of Al Gore from a number of speeches, interviews, and policy forums.

This is not a biographical documentary, and it's not an opinionated documentary either. This is Al Gore "as is."

Words can be powerful and moving, especially Gore's and especially with accompanying music and images, but is Al Gore merely a master of rhetoric?

Has Al Gore failed in his efforts to effect change?

What lies beyond the inspiring words?

How much progress have we made?

(Very Good) Teleprompter Humor

Why I Still Love Mike Gravel, Episode 3

Chilling

It's the stuff that gives you goose-bumps, and it's a BIG problem for Democrats if this persists.

It's embarrassing to the party, it's embarrassing for Obama, and it's about the last time that State Sen. will ever make a public appearance for Obama.



In my last hurrah before I quiet down for a few days in preparation for my school's musical next week, I, like Chris Matthews, need to start hearing some substance. This is, after all, a race against one of the most experienced and well-respected Senators of the past few decades in the Republican party, not a conservative version of Obama who's only running on "hope" and "change."

Hold me back...



.

My First Vote

Conveniently, I don't even have to write about it. A video's worth more than a thousand words.

A Kennedy for Hillary?

Yes, and a good campaign ad if you ask me.

One Morning with John

I wrote about it on January 3 from Iowa, and I'm putting up this video I took of John Edwards' Iowa caucus morning rally in Des Moines in light of his withdrawal from the presidential campaign today.

As always, Edwards was on his game and drove home his points clearly and with the passion I'll always remember him for.


Enjoy.

Hands Down

"If they [Republicans] think they're getting into the ring against someone who doesn't know how to punch back, they've got the wrong guy."

THE best speech of the 2008 campaign so far.

Fiery.

That's not a word you hear much these days in the Democratic party.

Power to Gravel

This is almost enough to make Mike Gravel the recipient of my first campaign donation as an 18 year old.

Power to the people, give him a chance.

It's on my iTunes

I've got to say it's better than "Obama Girl," and the quality sure ain't bad for a guy playing guitar right in front of his computer.

All it seems to be missing is the Governor on bass.

Give it a moment to get going...

"John Had No Intention of Dying"

I've been a big McCain guy for a while, and until now I thought I knew a lot about his life as both a politician and a solider. His campaign's newest video is nothing short of extraordinary, and as McCain's mother says in the video, "I almost feel sorry for his opponents, because he stands so head and shoulders above these other people."

Military service shouldn't be a prerequisite for the presidency, but John McCain's career and service really do set him apart. The Senator is currently holding below 10% in national polls, but I'll celebrate every upward tick he's sure to make before the primaries, even if he falls to Romney, Giuliani, and his GOP competition when all is said and done.

Chess Masters

Since I've got a light load of reporting until Thursday, I figured I'd hold myself over with some YouTube-ing..


I don't doubt Richardson's record on gay issues, but it's the Governor's discomfort and the sheer awkwardness that radiated out from my computer screen that tells me he's not ready to be under fire in the Oval Office just yet. George Bush took his time reacting to the news of 9/11, but if he was asked the same question as Richardson was I'm sure he would have fired back an honest (albeit crazy) response quickly.


Former Alaska Senator Mike Gravel has put out a new online video advocating a simple, yet often ignored part of the foreign policy discussion by either Democrats or Republicans.

It's an idea similar to Ron Paul's "blowback" or consitutionalism--both core American principles, but so far removed from today's politics they seem foreign. The larger picture here is that two small-name politicians are inserting powerful messages into the political debate. We can only hope that both Paul and Gravel's messages will be embraced by a more survivable candidate to advocate through November '08.

I've got a light load of reporting until Thursday,