A very nicely done mashup of the classic Apple "1984" ad and Barack Obama has cropped up [view] on You Tube.

I agree with this observation by Carla Marinucci of the San Francisco Chronicle:

But in the weeks since its early March debut, the expertly created video remix... has "changed the zone" between political campaigns, their followers and the Internet, said Simon Rosenberg, president of the Washington-based New Democrat Network, an influential party advocacy group.

With presidential campaigns now poised to spend hundreds of millions of dollars in advertising that will blanket television before November 2008, this seemingly home-produced video -- created with software and a laptop and likely without the benefit of a team of expensive political consultants -- opens a new window, Rosenberg said.

It has dramatized a brave new world in which passionate activists outside the structure of traditional campaigns have the power to shape the message -- even for a presidential candidate.

The ad is proof that "anybody can do powerful emotional ads ... and the campaigns are no longer in control," Rosenberg said. "It will no longer be a top-down candidate message; that's a 20th-century broadcast model."

It also dramatizes that today, political activists with the Internet as their ammunition have gone from being "just donors to the cause," he said, "to being partners in the fight. And they don't have to wait for permission."

Personal politics aside, this is a fascinating development in politics. Has the power shifted more to the people? The ability to bypass the traditional political machine could be a very good thing, in the way it could empower people. It could also be a chilling back door for enemies of liberty to subvert our whole democratic process. In any event, there is no turning back.

During real wartime (like WWII), there are censorship rules, either official or defacto, applied to the traditional media. But hey, this is the internet, where rules are difficult to enforce, short of pulling the pipes.

This should be a *very* interesting election season!

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