For reasons that no one seems to understand, Bill Clinton decided to bring up Hillary's sniper story not once but twice today.
In reaction, its nice to see the big boys picking up on my "the Clintons don't understand how the Internet has changed politics" argument.
Seriously, what was the former president thinking when he decided to bring up the Bosnia story and then do so with the incorrect facts? Watching Bill on the trail makes folks wonder whether he could have held up to scrutiny in 1992 had YouTube and instant fact-checking existed back then. No one has seemed less prepared for the intense scrutiny of this campaign than Bill. He seems to forget that even when he's in rural Indiana, he's on the national stage. In '96, the Clinton campaign thought their local market strategy was innovative (it was), since it allowed him to talk to key media markets outside of the interference of the national press. Now, the national press is everywhere since local can become national in an instant.
Bill Clinton may well have never been elected president in the YouTube era.
The Internet has changed politics forever, and until a new, younger generation comes along, its going to continue to claim casualties like this. Everything you say is being recorded. It doesn't matter how big or how small the media market is. It is all being taken down, and if you screw up, the entire world will know. Multiple messages for multiple audiences will not work any longer. That strategy has worked for centuries, but its over now.
Obama is the only one left in the race who gets this, and even he apparently screws up from time to time. But if you think either of these mistakes are bad, just wait until you see the trainwreck McCain's decentralized, 10 regional managers for 10 regional campaigns strategy delivers this fall. It's going to be epic.
