Guest Blog From Dave Beasing-- YouTube: A New Gun In Town

If my friend Dave Beasing got the kinds of results that the Inside the Beltway careerist yutzes the Democratic Party Establishment hires year after year after year, he wouldn't have a job. Dave Beasing is a nationally-respected consultant and researcher who specializes in decoding the youth market for major companies like Dodge and Vh1. In the music business, he's numero uno and he specializes in actionable results, not excuses. Dave started as a disc jockey at small Midwestern radio stations and eventually wound up as the Program Director of Viacom's Star 98.7 FM, a breakthrough L.A. station in the 90s. He now spends many hours moderating focus groups for Jacobs Strategies, which keeps him up on the mood in the red states. Lately, he's witnessed a clear trend, that even Republican conservatives in places like Missouri are ready for a change in Washington. When I want to know what's really going on in the country, I could care less what Bob Shrum or Joe Hansen have to say. They're always wrong. I call Dave. Last week we were all scratching our heads about Lieberman's violent and seemingly gratuitous attack on YouTube. Today, I asked Dave to share some of his insights here at DWT.
 
The Senator from YouTube?
 
If Democrat challenger Claire McCaskill defeats Republican incumbent Senator Jim Talent in Missouri--and polls say it's close-- history may record McCaskill as the first U.S. Senator to have received a major boost from YouTube. Just before the weekend of October 21 & 22, McCaskill launched a new 30-second TV spot starring actor Michael J. Fox, a dramatic appeal based on the Democrat's support of stem cell research.

Inspiring campaign ads are nothing new. But while many Missourians may have first seen this spot on television-- the usual way-- many first saw it online. And politics aside, Fox's strong emotions cause most who see it to also suggest it to a friend. In fact, it was YouTube's most viewed video that weekend, and the McCaskill campaign claims over half a million people saw it. Many were probably inspired to contribute to air the spot a few more times the old-fashioned way.


[The video has been viewed on YouTube by over a million people.] The implications of this are enormous for political strategists and activists. Great TV spots (or T-shirts or bumper stickers or campaign songs like "Have You Had Enough?") has been around forever. Now it doesn't cost that much to get them seen or heard.  
 
Make no mistake: Campaign contributions still matter... a lot. But with Internet services like YouTube and blogs like DownWithTyranny at your disposal, big ideas are more important than big budgets.

[Editor's note: If you like our ideas for helping non-DCCC-funded progressives like John Laesch, Angie Paccione, Robert Rodriguez, Victoria Wulsin, even amounts as small as $5 add up fast. Last week we did a $5/candidate on-line fundraiser that brought in $50,000 in one day. Take a look-- and chip in what you can. Oh, and one more thing: Dave and the million people who watched it weren't the only ones who noticed the effectiveness of the Michael J Fox ad. Today Ben Cardin deployed a similar one against the Bush rubber stamp imbecile he's running against in Maryland.]