Obama Girl, Hott 4 Hill and the ‘YouTube Election’

By Joey Alarilla
INQUIRER.net

WILL the 2008 race to determine who will be the world’s most powerful man or woman hinge on YouTube?

You might think so, the way the candidates in the 2008 US presidential elections are trying to rock the vote via YouTube and other online video sites. Of course, the YouTube clip that has really caught everyone’s attention is the sexy “I Got a Crush…On Obama” By Obama Girl. As if Barack Obama weren’t already popular, heh.

It doesn’t hurt that Obama Girl is sexy model/actress Amber Lee Ettinger, who lip-synchs the vocals provided by Leah Kaufmann. Photo courtesy of Amber’s official site.

Here’s the YouTube video clip in case you haven’t seen it yet.

You can also check out the Obama Girl blog and BarelyPolitical.com.

Here’s an excerpt from an Associated Press article on the so-called YouTube Election:

Given all that’s at stake in the 2008 presidential race, it’s a bit terrifying to realize that by one measure, a major role is being played by an aspiring model/actress/fashion designer/former beauty pageant contestant named Amber.

That’s Amber Lee Ettinger, aka Obama Girl, whose racy Web video “I Got A Crush On Obama” has gotten well over 2 million hits in the three weeks it’s been online, making it one of the most-watched political videos this season.

Some of us have gotten so used to our daily fix of Web videos, it’s hard to remember that back in 2004, when President Bush spoke of “the Internets,” there WAS no YouTube.

Three years later, people are calling this the “YouTube Election” — in which anyone with a minicam or even a mere cell phone can conceivably impact the outcome. “Some of the best, the most innovative stuff is gonna come from some voter out there, who changes the entire complexion of the race,” says Joe Trippi, former campaign manager for Howard Dean in 2004, now adviser to the John Edwards campaign.

And that’s a scary thing for campaigns, which are used to controlling their own message, enforcing it from the top down. On the new playing field, “you lose the ability to manage what you want to say,” says Democratic strategist Chris Lehane, a former Clinton White House staffer.

So what’s a campaign manager to do? Fight back, with all the technology available: MySpace and Facebook profiles, candidates’ own online communities, text-messaging networks.

Of course, it wouldn’t be a YouTube Election and a Web 2.0 world without a video parody, heh

Check out Hott 4 Hill, where Taryn Southern spoofs the Obama Girl video and declares she has a crush on Hill.

Hill of course is the other very popular Democratic aspirant for US president, Hillary Clinton. Taryn’s photo courtesy of her official site.

Here’s the Hott 4 Hill YouTube clip.

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