As the race for the White House heats up, the scrutiny brought to bear upon the various wannabees will become exceedingly more intense, given the new technologies available. I have been saying for quite some time that the growing power of personal video combined with YouTube’s ease of use will alter the ways in which campaigns get waged, and cause a further "culling" of politicians unlike anything we’ve seen before. Think George Allen. It will take especially strong candidates to withstand this instantaneous inspection and detail. Will it actually bring us better politicians? The jury remains out on that thus far.
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I have previously suggested that the power of the YouTube could very well be the undoing of Republican hopeful Mitt Romney. It appears that for every position he holds today, there is a YouTube of him from the distant (or not too distant) past clearly holding some opposite view. Will the blowback from them happen during the primary, or during the general election, should he get the nomination? That is the question Republicans need to ask themselves as the primary unfolds.
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What do I mean? Check out this YouTube of Mitt singing the praises of none other than Teddy Kennedy as he unveils the so-called "Romney-Care" health initiatives in Massachusetts:
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Ouch! Just imagine what the Hillary attack machine could do with that! Like the other videos of Mitt defending a woman’s right to choose and dissing the Reagan years, this one is pretty hard to explain away. How many more such pieces of "evidence" lurk out there clearly showing a sea-change in political positions seemingly adopted and timed to the audience du-jour?
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If I were a conservative space alien dropped on earth today and listened to the various candidates, Mitt would most likely be the guy for me. He is saying the right things conservatives want to hear on nearly every issue. Unfortunately for Mitt, I am no space alien. I’ve been around a while, as he has. The problem, as amply evidenced, is whether or not what we get today is what we’ll get tomorrow. Most people only have two Achilles’ heels. How many does Mitt Romney have?
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