Virginia Republican, George Allen, was caught making a racial slur at a funding raising event last week. A student caught the comment on tape and published it on YouTube. Let’s just say we won’t be seeing him in primary season. Lieberman was also repeatedly embarrassed by bloggers and videobloggers.
Ryan Lizza writes that YouTube is causing a major revolution in campaigning.
But YouTube may be changing the political process in more profound ways, for good and perhaps not for the better, according to strategists in both parties. If campaigns resemble reality television, where any moment of a candidate’s life can be captured on film and posted on the Web, will the last shreds of authenticity be stripped from our public officials? Will candidates be pushed further into a scripted bubble? In short, will YouTube democratize politics, or destroy it?
Lizza quotes a Republican strategist who said that because of this, candidates will stop experimenting with their message. Candidates will become more vapid.
Perhaps Lizza, whose New Republic has been under siege by bloggers, is overly worried about the impact of videobloggers. If Allen let a racial slur slip and we caught him, then GOOD. If it keeps other racists out of elections, then GOOD. That case isn’t about increasing democracy. It’s just a new way to improve the vetting process.
I refuse to believe that this catch is going to keep candidates from giving boring policy chats. Those speeches just aren’t going appear in the YouTube top 5, which usually includes spoofs of Britney Spears and Chinese guys lip-synching hiphop songs. People said the same thing about C-SPAN, which is only watched by a small geriatric population.
Apt. 11d 
George Allen is an odious twit. He learned ‘macaca’ from his mother, a Tunisian French woman – so he’s a COSMOPOLITAN odious twit. That said, I think he is in no danger for reelection (this is Virginia after all) but I think it will damage him running for President in 2008. In my view, this is good…
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It’s worth noting that no one I’ve seen commenting on this brouhaha (including commenters who thought Allen’s comment was offensive) knew that “ma-ca-ca” was an ethnic slur in some French dialects long ago.
Allen is an idiot–but this incident has been blown out of proportion because Allen is hated (for his love of country), not because the name was actually offensive.
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Allen knew the word ‘macaca’ was offensive; that is all it takes. If Allen loves his country so much, why does he support the flag of the treasonous confederacy?
The May 8, 2006[24] and the May 15, 2006[25] issues of The New Republic reported extensively on Allen’s long association with the Confederate flag. The magazine reported that “[a]ccording to his colleagues, classmates, and published reports, Allen has either displayed the [Confederate] flag–on himself, his car, inside his home–or expressed his enthusiastic approval of the emblem from approximately 1967 to 2000.” Allen wore a Confederate flag pin for his high school senior class photo. In high school, college, and law school, Allen adorned his vehicle with a Confederate flag. In college he displayed a Confederate flag in his room. He displayed a Confederate flag in his family’s living room until 1992. In 1993, Allen’s first statewide TV campaign ad for governor included a Confederate flag. In 2000, when a voter told Allen, “Long live the Confederate flag!” Allen replied, “You got it!”
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He’s a racist because of an obscure French word that is supposed to be a slur was uttered? Linked article says that “Allen, who said that he had meant no insult and that he did not know what macaca meant” Er, who does? I dont nor do 99% of Americans. Trying to make something out of this is a stretch indeed.
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Joe O,
Because for Allen (and me), the Confederacy IS our country.
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Odious twits:
1) Keith Ellison – This Nation of Islam member (Farrakhan follower), aka Keith Hakim, Keith X Ellison and Keith Ellison-Muhammad, has CAIR, Hamas-friendly and ANSWER links.
2) Jeeni Criscenzo, Democratic Party nominee for the U.S. House of Representatives 49th California District wrote in a blog entry earlier this month from Amman, Jordan of her support for the so-called insurgency in Iraq: ” Heroic titles go to the victors and if justice is to ever come to the people of Iraq, the people we call insurgents will have to be recognized as the ones who are actually defending their homeland.”
Treasonable stupidity like the above is far more odious than some politician insulting a stalker from his opponent’s campaign at a campaign event.
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