WORRYING ABOUT YOUTUBE…. The president said something interesting this week to RealClearPolitics’ Tom Bevan and John McIntyre about politics and the online world.
“I am the very last President not to really have to worry about YouTube” while campaigning for the White House, President Bush told RealClearPolitics in an exclusive Oval Office interview last week, discussing the role the Internet and new media played in the November 4th elections.
“The ‘gotcha’ moments in my campaign in the past were few and far between,” the President recalled, noting that with the advent of YouTube candidates have to be “really careful” what they say or “you’re liable to see yourself on the Internet, along with 20 million other people.”
I think I know what Bush means. He’s had three serious campaigns in his professional political life — 1994, 2000, and 2004. YouTube was created in February 2005. Bush was caught saying all kinds of bizarre things during his campaigns — it’s painful to think about how many — and they made for great fodder on outlets like “The Daily Show,” but distributing these humiliating moments became effortless after Bush’s last race, not before.
That said, I strolled by YouTube this morning, just to see what happens when I do a search for “Bush,” and found that one could spend many a day going through all of the cringe-worthy clips.
Bush is the “very last President not to really have to worry about YouTube”? Here’s a crazy idea: maybe he should have worried about YouTube.
