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Underground Hillary ad causes stir
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An ad. spoofing Hillary Clinton's presidential aspirations appeared on YouTube and took the campaign by storm.
WASHINGTON (Map, News) - An underground Internet ad targeting Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton’s presidential candidacy is breaking new ground by attracting the sort of large audience once reserved for well-funded campaigns and advocacy groups that could afford expensive TV spots.
“The use of video on the Web will change politics in the same way it did in 2004 with fundraising and 2006 in the Senate race of George Allen,” Democratic strategist Mary Anne Marsh said. “It will also change the way campaigns are covered, as well as the way messages and attacks are delivered.”
The ad, which has been viewed more than a million times on the Web site YouTube and replayed endlessly on TV news broadcasts, is an adaptation of the iconic “1984” television spot that introduced Apple Macintosh computers 23 years ago. Images of Clinton are substituted for the Orwellian “Big Brother” in the original spot, which aired only once — during the 1984 Super Bowl.
In the updated version, row after row of mind-numbed “proles” stare vacantly at a giant screen of Clinton dispensing banalities. Then a colorfully dressed woman, chased by storm troopers, hurls a sledgehammer that shatters the screen and frees the proles from their oppression.
Clinton will not comment on the ad, campaign spokesman Phil Singer said.
Her rival, Sen. Barack Obama, who is cited at the end in a way that suggests his campaign either made or approved the ad, called the spot “pretty extraordinary.”
“One of the things about the Internet is that people generate all kinds of stuff,” he told a television interviewer. “In some ways, it’s the democratization of the campaign process. But it’s not something that we had anything to do with.”
Media expert Andrew Breitbart of Breitbart.com said people such as the ad’s creator, who has not been identified, could shake up the traditional model of campaign advertising.
“They could take it away from the Washington, D.C.-type of political entities that aren’t necessarily that creative — they’re thinking in sort of 1980s, 1990s political advertising terms,” he said.
Conservative author Ann Coulter called the spot “amazingly powerful.”
“It gets around the campaign finance laws, which I think is always good for conservatives,” she told Fox News. “More information is good for conservatives.”
Comments from Examiner Readers
3:45 PM MST on Thu., Feb. 28, 2008 re: "Hillary Clinton struggles with high disapproval ratings"
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8:03 PM MST on Tue., Sep. 18, 2007
re: "Hillary Clinton won’t repudiate MoveOn.org’s ‘Betray Us’ ad"
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2:22 PM MST on Tue., Sep. 18, 2007
re: "Hillary Clinton won’t repudiate MoveOn.org’s ‘Betray Us’ ad"
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5:23 PM MST on Mon., Sep. 3, 2007
re: "Hillary Clinton struggles with high disapproval ratings"
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12:14 PM MST on Thu., Jun. 21, 2007
re: "Crowd booes Clinton on troop withdrawals"
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11:42 AM MST on Thu., Jun. 21, 2007
re: "Crowd booes Clinton on troop withdrawals"
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5:38 PM MST on Wed., Jun. 20, 2007
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Examiner Reader said:
I really don't think The United States is ready for a woman Presdient. I say this even though I am a woman myself. I am in agreement with Mrs. Clinton's plan to remove troops as quickly as possible from Iraq, but thats about all I agree with. Most of everything else she has to say has already been said before with little to no action.
68 agree | 91 disagree
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Curtis in L.A. said:
Hillary's got my vote!
229 agree | 208 disagree
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ECNick said:
I hated the Moveon ad (it was too Swiftboat like), but I'm glad I live in a country where we still have free speech.
193 agree | 210 disagree
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Clinton Hearing on Voter Fraud Sept. 7, 2007 in LA said:
Paul v. Clinton - September 7, 2007 Hearing The UNITED STATES JUSTICE FOUNDATION (USJF) today announced that the Court of Appeal for the Second Appellate District, Division 7, has set oral argument for the appeal in Paul v. Clinton on September 7, 2007, in the Ronald Reagan State Building, 300 S. Spring Street, 2nd Floor, North Tower, Los Angeles, California 90013. The appeal is derived from the dismissal of Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton from the Paul v. Clinton litigation. The remaining defendants in the business fraud case, which involves the largest known campaign fraud in history, include former President William Jefferson Clinton. According to Colette Wilson, USJF Staff Attorney, and Lead Attorney on this case, “Among the issues the California Court of Appeal is being asked to decide is whether Senator Clinton’s role in soliciting campaign contributions from Peter Paul in excess of $1.2 Million amounted to a felony.
231 agree | 251 disagree
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A South Reader said:
Politicians are the most dangerous animals in the world. They get worse when they are engaged in some interest groups. Never trust what they say.
289 agree | 292 disagree
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Examiner Reader said:
It is the way to go. Bring the troops home and bring down the deficit . I am fed up with warmongers and deficit and open southern borders for illegal aliens invasion. I vote for Clinton , for the old good time under her husband Clinton
291 agree | 305 disagree
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Bob Zupruder said:
DO NOT VOTE FOR HILLARY! She is FAKE! She is a tool of the same evil that controls the Bush Administration.
304 agree | 297 disagree
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