Drama. Back stabbing. Dirt. Extravagent promises. Elaborate praise. Stumbles. Unlikely allies. Quick changing sides. Humor.
The most inspiring, aggravating, argument-starting, high stakes, largest-scale reality show of all is already unfolding in real time. The world is watching. We’ve already seen "fresh" glimpses into the private lives of public people. The money changing hands. VIPs shifting sides. The insincere compliments. The side-stepping to hard questions.
I am talking about the elongated race for the presidency, of course. Flattening out like our world, more vulnerable than ever to the “power of us, thanks in large part to the ever-present mobile phone camera, blogs and online sites for writing and downloading everything.
Two of the biggest producers of this real reality show where the prize is becoming the leader of the free world are the gorillas in the room, YouTube and MySpace. (Come on in FaceBook they are all hunting for new voters.)
Of course using YouTube or MySpace to attract new voters for your presidential campaign is a different kettle of fish than crafting the old-fashioned TV or print ad, yet one thing remains the same, “only more so” as my godson said today. While I was looking for authenticity, he said more bluntly, “Get real.”
We were looking at MySpace’s new Impact Channel, featuring ten of the candidates. What we both noticed was that even in thir promotional photographs, ostensibly their best face forward, only five of the ten were looking directly into the camera.
Which face do you trust the most?
By the way, beginning tomorrow, according to Mashable, you can link from this page to the home pages of all of the candidates and to a page where people can register to vote, the DeclareYourself page.
But the big action will be when, like YouTube, candidates can ask for your donations on MySpace. We’ll see a high-stakes reality show ensure in real time then, what with cany, high-paid political strategists spinning their story leads 24/7, asking for money, and “amateurs” and veteran bloggers responding, from the crazy to the erudite, responding in quick cascades back and forth. It will make Wikipedia updates and tempests about accuracy seem like a case of slow motion civility.
I’ll bet that well before we actually vote, the tail will be wagging the dog many times, with traditional media reporting on the breaking news, crazy stunts, exposes and colorful characters online.
