I’m a little behind the times on this one, but did you hear that Hillary Clinton asked YouTube users to help pick her campaign song? It’s true. You can check out the story here: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/18918533/. You could also check out the video clip where she announces the winner (a parody of the “Sopranos” finale) here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sO9S7m9IVpo . (Or I could just tell you the final song choice is a Celine Dion song).
Anyway, I’m not a big fan of politics in general, and I’m even less a fan of cheesy political moves. I think this campaign song strategy definitely qualifies as cheesy, but for some reason I’m OK with it.
I wasn’t old enough to vote at the time of Bill Clinton’s first presidential election, but I remember what a big deal was made out of the fact that he appeared on the Arsenio Hall show to play his saxophone. He was appealing to young voters in the best way he knew how, and now his wife is doing the same thing. It’s a smart political move.
I don’t know that I will vote for Hillary Clinton to be our first female president – I haven’t even started to think about next year’s presidential race. But I do know that young voter apathy has skyrocketed in past years. People my age just don’t like to vote, but they love to complain when things aren’t going their way. I think this is bogus, and I think Clinton’s YouTube attempt is one of the best ways to get out the young vote.
During the last presidential election, I lamented the fact that there was almost no attempt to reach young voters, especially college age (which I was at the time). This time around I think candidates should recognize that the best ways to gather young votes are through programs like “The Daily Show,” and through Web sites like YouTube, Myspace and Facebook. Sure, some people will be turned off the candidate by these blatant pushes to seem hip, but others (like myself) will see that at least the candidate is making an effort and respect him or her for it.
To me it doesn’t really matter which party a voter supports, as long as everyone actually votes. This seems like a step in the right direction.