Dancing kitties and prattling politicians

Get ready for the next wave of video on YouTube.com: Politics.

It’s started already, thanks to "Mbair101," who posted clips of former Sen. John Edwards' speech at this past weekend's Gnomedex geek-fest in Seattle.  There are six segments, each about 7 minutes long.  Another contributor, ZeitgeistRover, has posted other speaking appearances by Edwards including Vermont and at UC Berkley.  Clips of Edwards on "Hardball" and "The Daily Show" have also made it to YouTube.com.

Expect campaign managers to catch on fast to this opportunity to get their candidates more exposure.  In 2004, blogs were the hot thing; this time, it’s going to be video.  But this being the Internet, it's not going to be one-sided.

Searches of YouTube for Hillary Clinton and Al Gore find clips, too.  But, they are likely to be mocking than positive.  That will change.

Political campaigns are likely to use YouTube for managing the process, including scheduling updates, advertising campaign previews, and even negative attack ads. As campaigns have become more focused on TV, it makes all the sense in the world that the Internet will share the load.  Even more than TV, the Internet can deliver messages to niche special interest groups and small geographical markets.  This will open new opportunities, too.  Any doubt that Brightcove or Akamai may already be talking to campaigns about supplying bandwidth and production technologies?

There’s no reason why Internet video won't play a role in this fall's Congressional elections.  National party campaigns already use video on their own Web sites, so pushing the concept to local races is natural.

And it won't be limited to major party candidates.  The economy and flexibility of the Internet is tailor-made for third-party candidates.  Even seventh-party and eighth-party.  Imagine what Ross Perot  might have accomplished if he'd had the Web as a campaign channel.

JibJab's "This Land is Your Land" was just the start.