My biggest hit ever: McCain on ‘that little jerk’ Graham


T
he kind words some of y’all offered about my video on this last post — which featured Lindsey Graham talking about Sarah Palin — reminded me of something I noticed just the other day.

Remember how I used to bore y’all with my Top Five Lists of which of my video clips were getting the most play on YouTube? Well, I sort of got out of the habit there for awhile (partly because I was tired of being depressed by the fact that three of my Top Five were clips of neoNazis at the State House), but the other day I looked, and lo and behold, the above clip from more than a year ago had come out of nowhere to top my list.

The last time I’d taken any notice of my stats, my top videos were at around 20,000 views. All of a sudden, the clip I shot in the Vista on the night of the first GOP presidential debate in South Carolina — way back in May 2007 (is it possible it was that long ago) — had shot up from nowhere to the top spot, at 45,000 views! It’s the one in which John McCain, standing on a podium with Henry McMaster and Bobby Harrell, looks out into the crowd and says,

… and I know that little jerk Lindsey Graham is around here somewhere.

Of course, being all about giving y’all the full story, I also posted the full, unedited context of that joke, in which McCain went on to say nice things about his buddy. But that context — which is sort of worth watching for the way my shaky handheld style captures the confusion and crowd excitement, although inadvertently — isn’t nearly as popular. It’s been viewed less than 1,000 times.

Obviously, on YouTube, brevity sells. So does irony.

One last note: I’m happy to say that my critically acclaimed "Who Resurrected the Electric Car?," probably my finest job of video editing ever (considering the low-res images I work with), stays in the number three spot at 28,000 views — right behind the not-so-acclaimed "Sieg Heil at the State House" and "Hillary’s Heckler."

Anyway, enjoy.

8 thoughts on “My biggest hit ever: McCain on ‘that little jerk’ Graham

  1. Vic Stone

    Good job Brad. You were able to get several shots of the lone black person in front of the speaker at this GOP event. At McCain campaign stops the black is placed behind him on the stage. He also makes certain the black Secret Service agents in his detail are always near him when the cameras are rolling.
    JMac has said the he wants to be “your Commander in Chief” more often than he says President. That really is his goal. I fear that he has the same father-son problems W had with 41. Lindsey Graham will definitely be the first person McCain chooses for the White House wardroom. They really are best friends which isn’t a bad thing. Anyone would want a friend as loyal as Graham has been.

  2. Brad Warthen

    Well, you certainly noticed something I didn’t — the black guy. If McCain is actually doing what you say, his campaign is a lot more organized than I think it is.
    David Broder has a good column for tomorrow that touches on McCain’s lack of affinity for running a campaign organization — something that almost sank him in the weeks after this video was shot (the video is from 5/15/07, when McCain was seen as the front-runner, BEFORE his campaign was seen as dead, before he came back to win the nomination), and which seems to have sunk him again.

  3. Lee Muller

    Maybe Gang Obama can learn the name of that “lone black person on camera” and send some thugs around to straighten him out, when they aren’t trashing McCain headquarters or shouting, “Stone her!” at Sarah Palin.
    Did you hear about Obama’s father-son problems? Both fathers abandoned him. Unfortunately, his replacement father figures were his racist grandfather, communist Frank Marshal Williams, and racist Jeremiah Wright.
    But Obama’s seething anger and desire to punish the villians who have held him down comes from his anger at his mother abandoning him.
    Bill Ayers has the exact same problems of abandonment by his father and an unloving mother. Ayers’ hate came to the surface early in his murderous activities, and his lack of remorse is that of a serial killer.
    Bill Ayers is where Obama is headed on his psycological descent.

  4. jfx

    Lee, you just need a hug. Cheer up. I know this is difficult for you. You seem like you’re still on the fence about whether Obama will get your vote. Well, relax and get some rest. You’ve still got a few days yet to decide.

  5. Rich

    Just what do you think McCain might have been thinking about when he used the word “jerk”? I don’ think it had anything to do with Graham’s evident intelligence and probity. Just something a frat boy might know.

  6. Lee Muller

    Anyone who likes the anger of Obama and his followers is probably also an angry loser themselves, who laps up Obama’s feigned sympathy for their victimhood, and believes that he is the black knight who will get even with the villains he names.

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