I just went through YouTube to see which candidates had the most videos about them. This is a flawed survey because when I search for “Hillary Clinton” all YouTube is doing is responding with videos tagged “Hillary Clinton” and people can throw any tag on any video in hopes that it will be seen. Still, this turns into another interesting gauge of heat and strategy.
I went on this search because I was curious just how much Ron Paul video there was in YouTube. A handful of his rabid supporters have done an incredible job taking over YouTube. Videos about him are everywhere. Videos everywhere are tagged Ron Paul. This leads to an impression that he is everywhere: one guy with 100 hats on sticks over the fort wall.
Here are the counts. Keep in mind that these are not videos by the candidates but videos tagged with the candidates’ names. Keep in mind also that many videos are tagged with more than one candidate’s name. Do not use these numbers for betting. They are for entertainment purposes only…
DEMOCRATS
Barack Obama: 18,000
Hillary Clinton: 16,600
John Edwards: 16,000
Dennis Kucinich: 2,400
Mike Gravel: 2,300
Joe Biden: 2,300
Bill Richardson: 1,340
Chris Dodd: 1,130
Note that Dodd has been doing some of the most innovate YouTube work. At least in this measure, it hasn’t caught fire inspiring more videos to be made.
REPUBLICANS (hang onto your hats)
Ron Paul (drumroll please): 43,500
Rudy Giuliani: 6,960
John McCain: 6,770
Mitt Romney: 4,980
Fred Thompson: 1,310
Mike Huckabee: 441
Duncan Hunter: 427
Tom Tancredo: 321
Sam Brownback: 243
The Republicans’ strategy of avoiding YouTube seems to be working.
Piling on n- YouTube channel subscribers:
Paul - 25,000
Obama - 9,848
Clinton - 5,088
Edwards - 3,679
Kucinich - 2,776
Romney - 2,717
Gravel - 2,501
Giuliani - 2,152
McCain - 1,500
Richardson - 1,414
Biden - 1,146
Huckabee - 782
Tancredo - 683
Dodd - 614
Hunter - 609
Brownback - 511
**A handful of his rabid supporters have done an incredible job taking over YouTube. **
C’mon, Jeff. What’s “a handful?” Did you count the number of people posting videos tagged “Ron Paul?” If you did or even just did a cursory glance over the names, I think you know it isn’t a handful.
Ron Paul has over 25,000 channel subscribers. Is that a handful?
If the facts don’t fit your outlook…, exaggerate, slant ‘em.
Does that Mitt number include his own 280 videos?
Mike Gravel for President 2008!