Note to State: Earn Your First in the Nation Status

Privileged access to presidential candidates is one of the fringe benefits of living in New Hampshire. But in order to prevent other states from grabbing the pole position, we've had to push the date of our primary earlier and earlier.

Maybe, instead, we should do something to earn our first-in-the-nation status. Here's a thought: let's share our access to candidates, in a way that helps improve the campaign process.

How? By using the new medium of Internet video in a creative way.

In February, when Hillary Clinton visited Keene High School, I was struck by one of her responses during the question-and-answer period following her talk. The question was: "What can we do to strengthen manufacturing in the U.S.?" Her answer came in five parts and took seven minutes to deliver. You'll never hear a five-part, seven-minute answer to any question on the nightly news, or in one of the debates leading up to the election. But candidates routinely deliver these long and thoughtful responses in places like Keene's Central Square, in Lindy's Diner, and at our High School.

What if anyone could search the web and retrieve that seven-minute segment? Well, now anyone can, thanks to the magic of Internet video. I captured that seven-minute segment as a video clip, uploaded it to YouTube, and tagged it with the terms Hillary Clinton and manufacturing.

Imagine a database of video clips, each focused on a specific question and answer, each tagged with the name of a candidate and an issue. If every New Hampshire resident who totes a camcorder to a campaign event were to produce just one of these short clips, and were to upload it with appropriate tags, we would collectively create that database.

Imagine what that would mean. Anyone could pull together a documentary on what the candidates have said about manufacturing, energy, education, health care, the war.

Could we really use YouTube this way? Absolutely. YouTube doesn't have to be a venue for a new form of negative advertising, like the recent spoof of Apple Computer's famous 1984 Super Bowl ad in which Hillary Clinton appears in the role of Big Brother.

We don't need more attack ads. We do need better ways to publish, catalog, and discuss the statements that politicians will be making during this election season. By using our camcorders and the Internet, we, the citizens of New Hampshire, from our ringside seats, could lead the way. That's the kind of "being first" that everyone around the country would appreciate.