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| E.Unique! | SENATOR BARACK OBAMA (D-IL) (Presumptive Democratic presidential nominee.): In this century, we need a strong European Union that deepens the security and prosperity of this continent while extending a hand abroad.
DR. MCLAUGHLIN: The European Union. It's a super-national organization with 27 members combined into one giant hyper-power. Together, this hyper-power makes up about 30 percent of the world's gross domestic product -- GDP. The total population of the E.U., 500 million. That's 14 percent of the total world population. Primary religions include Roman Catholic, Protestant, Orthodox, Muslim, Jewish. The union has its own flag and anthem and currency.
The member countries: Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, Cyprus, Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Ireland, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxemburg, Malta, the Netherlands, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden, United Kingdom.
| | There's no military -- there's no military force over there to speak of in the E.U., so it doesn't qualify for superpower status on that basis alone. | -John McLaughlin | 
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| Yes we can! | SEN. OBAMA: It was a creed written into the founding documents that declared the destiny of a nation. Yes we can. It was whispered by slaves and abolitionists as they blazed a trail toward freedom. Yes we can! Yes we can!
DR. MCLAUGHLIN: This video has been seen on YouTube over 8 million times. It was produced by hip-hop musician will.i.am and airs on YouTube. Barack Obama is the candidate of the YouTube era, as Obama himself and his campaign have their own channel on YouTube with over 1,100 videos. These videos have been seen over 50 million times. And Obama has his own website, BarackObama.com, which hosts even more videos.
(End videotaped segment.)
DR. MCLAUGHLIN: Question: Has the Obama campaign set a new gold standard for political use of the Internet, Clarence Page?
| | No doubt about it. He's advanced what Howard Dean did four years ago and taken it to the ultimate level, both as a propaganda campaign tool, if you will, also as a fundraising tool, as we have seen, and as a -- you know, generating national conversation. | -Clarence Page |
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| Yes We Can! | SEN. OBAMA: It was a creed written into the founding documents that declared the destiny of a nation. Yes we can. It was whispered by slaves and abolitionists as they blazed a trail toward freedom. Yes we can! Yes we can!
DR. MCLAUGHLIN: This video has been seen on YouTube over 8 million times. It was produced by hip-hop musician will.i.am and airs on YouTube. Barack Obama is the candidate of the YouTube era, as Obama himself and his campaign have their own channel on YouTube with over 1,100 videos. These videos have been seen over 50 million times. And Obama has his own website, BarackObama.com, which hosts even more videos.
Is there more downsides than there are pluses? | | I will tell you what the downside is because we've seen it, and the Obama campaign has actually had to deal with this in a very aggressive way. They put up this phenomenal website, very interactive -- they've, like, lit a fire under the interaction of getting people involved, raising money off this website.
However, they also set up a brand new part of this website where people can post their own blogs, and the downside to this is that the Obama team has had to remove a lot of these blogs because they're either reverse-racist, they're anti-Semitic. There's all kinds of really inflammatory stuff that's being posted -- not on behalf of Barack Obama but by people who just want the venue. And that is the downside.
| -Monica Crowley |
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| Washington to E.U.: "Be gone" | Get this: Kempe says that the Washington crowd does not appreciate the E.U. In fact, Washington, like Buchanan, wants the E.U. to butt out. Quote, "This town doesn't understand the importance of the E.U. Some people in Washington just wish it would go away" -- like Buchanan. (Laughter.) "But it won't. It's getting more strategic and more involved in security issues," unquote.
Question: Is Kempe right? Is Washington -- should Washington butt out -- take the view the E.U. should butt out?
| | Look, the E.U. is an economic power. We have democratic values and culture and civilization. But as a military power, it is useless. It has no unity. As Henry Kissinger said, "You can't pick up the phone and call somebody and say, 'Let's go.' | -Pat Buchanan |
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| McCain and the Internet | McCain admits that he doesn't send e-mails, and he is now just learning how to Google. (Laughter.) But McCain can turn out solid political Internet video. So why bother learning the net now? Watch.
(Begin videotaped segment.)
MR. CHURCHILL: (Inaudible.) We shall fight on the beaches. We shall fight on the landing grounds. We shall fight in the fields and in the streets. We shall fight in the hills. We shall never surrender.
SENATOR JOHN MCCAIN (R-AZ) (Presumptive Republican presidential nominee.): Keep that faith. Keep your courage. Stick together. Stay strong. Do not yield. Do not flinch. Stand up. We're Americans. We're Americans, and we'll never surrender. They will.
DR. MCLAUGHLIN: This is one of Senator McCain's 200 YouTube videos, compared to Obama's 1,100. On the viewership scale, McCain has 4 million views, compared to Obama's 58 million views.
(End videotaped segment.)
DR. MCLAUGHLIN: Question: Obviously Obama's presence on the Internet is robust and McCain's presence is puny. But there's a downside to Obama's overwhelming dominance. What is the downside?
| | The Internet is the new medium of communication, and the Obama campaign has really mastered it, although McCain hasn't been as bad as you might have expected. They've started to produce, as you've shown, some pretty hip videos. But what they haven't done, which the Obama team has really done -- which shows they get the Internet -- is they've been interactive and they have allowed their community to produce material for them. That's the real idea of the Internet -- the social networking, the user-generated content. | -Chrystia Freeland |
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