CINCINNATI (TDB) -- Apparently, Big Brother wasn't watching. The YouTube ad that is being hailed/denounced as creating a Brave New World of Internet viral political campaigning was a complete rip-off. Check out Connecticut for Joe. It was hardly noticed and got less than 1,000 hits.
Newly-elected Democratic Ohio U.S. Sen. Sherrod Brown's former blog guru Phil de Vellis claims he concocted the Hillary Clinton as Big Sister version that has had the 'sphere atwitter. If so, he polished an apple that somebody previously had bitten. Such amazing creativity. Or is it plagiarism?
Watch the Connecticut version. Turns out that Ned Lamont's supporters floated nearly the same ad last year in his showdown with Lieberman.
[UPDATE: Blue State Digital where de Vellis worked until his reputed responsibility for the anti-Hillary ad became known, did Lamont's Web work last year. And a Blue State wheel has moved on to Sen. Barack Obama's presidential campaign. Inquiring minds might be wondering: Pure coincidence? Blue State, however, insists it has absolutely no connection to the 1984 video and de Vellis was terminated; de Vellis says he quit.]
[UPDATE 2: Bob Adams made the Lamont ad last July. When he saw the Hillary version earlier this month he mused about copycats. Another veteran of Ohio Democratic politics, Tim Tagaris, worked for the Lamont campaign in 2006 and pointed out the existence of Adams' work. And there's more from Bob. It looks like Ohio really is the heart of it all.]
Just goes to reaffirm how rabidly frightened the CCCRR's are of anything named "Clinton!"
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