Sen. Allen’s gaffe gets YouTubed

By Steve Safran 

While some still try to figure out about the power of YouTube, witness what happened to Sen. George Allen (R – Virginia) as he stumped for re-election. Sen. Allen, obviously cheesed off at an opponent’s campaign worker who was videotaping the event, called the worker “Macaca,” an odd choice somehow meant to denote the kid’s ethnicity in some way. (The worker in question, S.R. Sidarth is of Indian descent.) A Macaca is an asian monkey. Allen then said “welcome to America” to Sidarth, an American born in Virginia The video hit YouTube faster than you can say, well, “Macaca.”

The power to control the message – and the gaffes – is now out of the spin doctors’ hands.

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