Jack & Jill Politics

Yay! BTW, 5-10% of my brain at any given time is still stuck on “WHOOOO HOOOO!!! OMG…OMG…OMG…WHOOOOO!” Is that just me? In the news: Obama will YouTube us regularly. I look forward to posting these. Senior members of the transition team and cabinet picks will also be adding video. Bad sister Valerie Jarrett has a transition update video up at Change.Gov already. Peep it:

From Jose Antonio Vargas at WashPo:

Today, President-elect Obama will record the weekly Democratic address not just on radio but also on video — a first. The address, typically four minutes long, will be turned into a YouTube video and posted on Obama’s transition site, Change.gov, once the radio address is made public on Saturday morning.

The address will be taped at the transition office in Chicago today.

“This is just one of many ways that he will communicate directly with the American people and make the White House and the political process more transparent,” spokeswoman Jen Psaki told us last night.

In addition to regularly videotaping the radio address, officials at the transition office say the Obama White House will also conduct online Q&As and video interviews. The goal, officials say, is to put a face on government. In the following weeks, for example, senior members of the transition team, various policy experts and choices for the Cabinet, among others, will record videos for Change.gov.

Here’s what Steve Grove of YouTube has to say:

“The Obama team has written the playbook on how to use YouTube for political campaigns. Not only have they achieved impressive mass — uploading over 1800 videos that have been viewed over 110 million times total — but they’ve also used video to cultivate a sense of community amongst supporters,” said Steve Grove, head of news and politics at YouTube. “Obama told us in a YouTube interview last year that he plans to have ‘fireside chats’ on video, and we expect his administration will launch a White House YouTube channel very soon after taking office.”