YouTube: The new campaign tool
By Charles Hurt
THE WASHINGTON TIMES
August 17, 2006

Welcome to politics in the age of YouTube.

Founded last year as a way to share personal video clips online, YouTube.com quickly became an Internet sensation. So it was only a matter of time before political campaigns -- and others with a political ax to grind -- began using the Web site to distribute videos, including campaign ads.

This week, the site made one of its biggest splashes with a video of Sen. George Allen referring to an opponent's volunteer, who is of Indian descent, as a "macaca" during a campaign event in southwestern Virginia. A macaca is a Southeast Asian monkey.

That video was one of the most-viewed clip on the site yesterday, with more than 70,000 viewings, according to YouTube. But that video is certainly not the first political footage to be broadcast on YouTube. the rest