Posted on 11/29/2007 6:12:22 PM PST by 2ndDivisionVet
Remember Macaca?
The young man whose handheld video brought down former Virginia Sen. George Allen, has resurfaced in the presidential contest that Allen once hoped to be part of himself.
S.R. Sidarth, the Fairfax student of Indian descent, is now a paid staffer in the communications office of Democratic Presidential hopeful Bill Richardson. He works in Richardson's Santa Fe office compiling daily newspaper articles for the governor, drafting press releases and performing other communication tasks.
Alas, he is not reprising his role as a volunteer "tracker" for the Jim Webb campaign, when he shadowed Allen with a video camera, hoping to catch the Republican in an unguarded moment. It was Allen's dismissive comment about Sidarth --"Say hello to Macaca or whatever his name is"--that helped to doom Allen's reelection bid in 2006.
Sidarth's video was one of the first political video's to "go viral" on the web, forcing Allen to repeatedly apologize and opening the door to other stories questioning his commitment to diversity. Allen lost by a tiny margin to Webb, but the political damage also destroyed a promising shot at the presidency this year.
Sidarth did not reply to a request for an interview sent to his Richardson campaign e-mail.
But Sidarth's presence on the Richardson campaign may be no coincidence.
The New Mexico governor also employs the ad agency Murphy Putnam, whose employee, Philip de Vellis, was the one responsible for the now-famous anti-Hillary Clinton video that spoofed Apple Computer's "1984" ad. The spoof, which was eventually connected to de Vellis, flew across the Internet like wildfire.
Between the two, Richardson has two of the most successful guerrilla warriors when it comes to using video on the Internet. So far, however, neither has found a magic bullet for Richardson, who is still lagging in the polls.
(Excerpt) Read more at blog.washingtonpost.com ...
Sidarth and Huma - Hmmm...
Let this be a lesson to the Republicans. If anyone throws a trick question at them or tries to incite a controversy, as in the case of Macaca, they are being set up by Dem operatives. Don’t let them get away with it. Go after the perps, and expose the demons.
I still have a hard time convincing myself that Jim Webb, an angry turn coat actually defeated George Allen.
That’s why I’m glad that George Allen isn’t running for president. If Jim Webb could do him in with one little word, can you imagine what the Hillary machine would have doe to him? He may have had good conservative credentials, but it doesn’t do any good if the conservative doesn’t get elected. I thought he was too weak of a candidate who mishandled the Macaca incident badly.
I think this is great news!
Together, they are the two most easily beaten candidates. I wish them well in their joint efforts to capture the dummy nomination.
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