How Has the Internet Affected Politics?

Barelypolitical.com, home of the infamous Obama Girl, posted this video on YouTube, in which the brains behind several prominent websites (Craigslist, MySpace, Wired, YouTube, Idealist.org, etc.) attending the Personal Democracy Forum spoke about the effect of the Internet on politics:

One of my favorite comments was how Hillary Clinton’s website was like “the PC version of the PC versus Mac debate.” A lot of this is fluff (and self promotion), but it does bring up the point that (I really hate this term) the “blogosphere” has had an amazing affect on politics. And though we were starting to see it in the 2004 election, this presidential race is really the first one that (I think) could be won or lost in the blogs. After all, the Bush/Kerry race was pre-YouTube. And now? Yes We Can won an Emmy. A political ad.

You might call me a cheerleader for user-generated content, and here’s another reason why. The world would simply not be as interesting a place without this video, featured not only on The Huffington Post, but in this week’s Entertainment Weekly: