David Zucker* may be the most important man of the political campaign. His YouTube video,  now marked as "inappropriate" by Google but still available with an extra click, is all over the internet, after being posted by Drudge. Zucker places responsibility for the NoKo nukes where it belongs — in the lap of Madeleine Albright and the Clinton appeasers.

Television broadcasters no longer control the distribution of videos. If one can make an attractive product, a short, funny message with a punch to it, the viral marketing of the internet will distribute it for you. Zucker, a master of outrageously broad film comedy, gives the treatment to Maddy. It isn't pretty, but it is funny. Having previously satirized Queen Elizabeth and Mother Theresa, there's no reason why Albright should be off limits.

Derision is one of the most potent persuasive tools in all of politics. It cuts right through pretension and endless repetition, both of which are primary tools of left wing media efforts to influence the public. That power is why a master like Zucker is so important.

I only hope that David will continue to use his talents. If he is interested in producing a satirical video about the Foley case, I would love to talk to him, and I bet that Clarice Feldman would too. We have a found a lot to laugh at and deride in that black ops campaign. And Rahm Emanuel is already on camera sticking to his comical "I never saw them" line. With 27 days left, theree is time enough to turn around public perceptions, and a funny video would be a huge help.

The fact that YouTube, the brand new acquisition of Google, is in effect tut—tutting by slapping up the extra click, only helps build the mystique of the Albright video. Something which the censors might not like is just the thing to encourage people to email their friends with the URL. Get it before it disappears.

By the way, Google should take care that it doesn't earn YouTube a reputation for bias in the way it handles complaints. The servers alone aren't worth the billion and a half or so Google paid. They are also buying a brand name.

I don't see many barriers to entry in the industry, though.  It is no more trouble to refer people to other hosting sites, and I know of no reason why others can't set up rivals. So if YouTube gains the reputation of certain limits, the brand value will plummet as people take their business elsewhere.

The rise of the internet as the dominant medium of politics, which I regard as an accomplished fact, has changed the political dynamics. Conservatives, frozen out of the mainstream in television and films, have the perfect counterforce, if only more people with the smarts of David Zucker would rise to the challenge and opportunity.

*At first publication, I identified the creator as Jerry Zucker. However his brother David is the man. My apologies to both brothers for the error.

Thomas Lifson  10 11 06