• by Steve Smith , Staff Writer @popeyesm, November 8, 2010

In the last two election cycles, getting "YouTubed" in politics was not a good thing. As cadres of "oppositional researchers" skulked about the audiences in candidate functions, armed with flip cams and cell phones, everyone was on alert. Every misstatement, faux pas and gaffe was moments away from a YouTube upload. There is no private zone in life or in politics when it comes to video surveillance. Smile. Big brother may not be watching you, but the social network is.

To be sure, this campaign had its Macaca moments. In the New York Governor's race, candidate Carl Palladino's thuggish encounter with journalist was among my favorites. And while it didn't get a lot of play in the press, the Democrats actually launched in June a n online clearinghouse for recorded Republican gaffes. Called The Accountability Project, the site carries some starry video clips of Newt, Mitt and Michael Steele but the overall number of video views suggests the idea never really took off. Gee, do you think the electorate may have been voting on something more substantial than gaffes this time around?

I am sure gotcha politics will survive this little lull in the hyperventilation over any stray comment. But you could say that the political uses of YouTube finally turned a corner in 2010. Now we have cagey politicians leveraging virality much more effectively than ever before. To wit. Minutes after the Republican shellacking of Democrats, the irrepressible Sarah Palin released her own "Morning in America" video called "Together" in which she manages to take credit and ownership of the rightest of the right wing winner with a voiceover and a snarling grizzly bear. It has well over 200,000 YouTube views and many more on-air TV eyeballs.

But hands down the best use of video by a politician this season comes from Jimmy McMillan, New York gubernatorial candidate and debate show stealer. With a wraparound mustache the likes of which we have not seen in this city for a century, McMillan's one line rant at the debate was as blunt as it was true for anyone in the New York metro area - "The rent is too damn high." You think Jimmy is a character in politics, wait until you see "Jimmy Mack" in his music video rendition of the tagline. The marvelous thing about this video is that is it not only catchy but convincing. McMillan isn't just doing a politico's hip turn here (although the back up singers should be careful how close they get to those whiskers). McMillan really does lay out his basic point in the course of the song - that unfair leasing practices are driving minority renters from the city. More than that his refrain "Ain't nothin else to talk about" is a powerful point in and of itself. Who else this election went right to the point that Americans are suffering and their elected officials are jockeying for political position and points? Shouldn't politicians really be speaking directly from the fundamental issue for the poor, the jobless, the underpaid - they can't afford to live?

Far from a colorful crackpot, McMillan may have been the sanest guy in any race we had.