January 11, 2007

Using a Podcast to Respond to a YouTube Attack

It's all new media all the time for presidential hopeful Mitt Romney as the former Massachusetts governor goes on the Glenn and Helen Show podcast to respond to video from a 1994 debate with Sen. Ted Kennedy that surfaced on YouTube yesterday containing things likely to offend social conservatives. As seen in the video from 1994, Romney defended a woman's right to abortion, said he supported allowing gays in the Boy Scouts and distanced himself from former President Reagan. Romney's new-media-savvy campaign's choice to use new media to respond to an attack launched via the new media delights Glenn Reynolds, of course, who notes that the podcast is getting lots of media attention. Reynolds's Instapundit blog has all the relevant links here.

Old-media jealousy of the growing influence of the new media is probably why the Associated Press' reportage describes the Glenn and Helen Show podcast as "a radio program featuring Tennessee psychologist Helen Smith and her husband, Glenn Reynolds" but pointedly doesn't identify Reynolds as the writer of the very popular Instapundit, or even as a blogger at all - and doesn't give readers any direction as to how to find the podcast online. Also, AP, a podcast isn't a radio show, it's an audio program distributed via the Internet.

Asked whom the campaign suspected of posting the 1994 video on YouTube, Romney spokesman Kevin Madden said: "It doesn't matter. We used the very same mediums made available to those seeking to attack Governor Romney to set the record straight in his own words with the facts."Madden's talking about video of Romney on the call with the Glenn and Helen Show, which the campaign promptly posted on YouTube.

As for the substance of the debate, Romney's clearly changed his views on some hot-button social issues in the last 13 years, and his conservative record on such issues while governor of Massachusetts ought to please social conservatives regardless of what he said during a debate in a Senate race 13 years ago.

Romney's recent statement to conservatives gathered at Sea Island, Ga., sums up things rather nicely regarding his changed views on such issues:

"Now, I wasn't always a Ronald Reagan conservative. Neither was Ronald Reagan, by the way. And perhaps some in this room have had the opportunity to listen, learn, and benefit from life's experience - and to grow in wisdom, as I have. My life experience convinced me that Ronald Reagan was right."

The takeaway from this episode is this: Romney and his campaign team understand the new media probably better than any of his rivals for the GOP nomination, and will be very adept at using it during the campaign ahead.

Update:
Jeff Jarvis at BuzzMachine: "This is amazing on so many levels: YouTube allows an opponent to find a candidate's words and play them again. But Romney chose to use podcasts and YouTube to respond. And big media has to pick that up."

David All, a Republican new-media guru, says, "Showing clear signs of strength in a modern world, Team Mitt has responded promptly and through the exact same medium with which they were attacked. Whether or not this response will curb the spread and stop the bleeding with which the original video started is yet to be determined."

Mary Katherine Ham writes "Perfect venue for a response. Hits all the right people - all those who posted on, commented on, and watched the YouTube within the firs t24 hours of its release. Methinks, from a strategy perspective, this was a really good move. Romney shows promise in the online politics arena, and it will serve him well. Nicely done."

Cross-posted at