YouTube In The Spotlight

YouTube has put Mitt Romney in the Spotlight -- er, or maybe the hot seat is a better word for it. The online video giant launched their YouTube You Choose '08 Spotlight yesterday where they'll showcase one WH '08 candidate per week asking users to answer a specific question. In turn, users can submit video responses to the candidates questions. For the first edition, Romney asks YouTube users: "What do you believe is America’s single greatest challenge and what would you do to address it?”

The clips get some pretty prominent attention at the top of the News and Politics Category page, which has certainly helped Romney gather the 14K plus views since the video was posted less than 24 hours ago. So far all the other WH '08 candidates have signed on except for Tommy Thompson and Jim Gilmore (though YouTube News and Politics head Steve Grove said his company is in contact with these campaigns). Grove also said the campaign picked Romney first because of scheduling, but it's an obvious advantange because of this first round of press.

In the hours since Romney's video has been posted, users have been honest about what they think of his question -- and Romney himself. Of the 100-plus written comments thus far, some users have contributed constructive comments like "How about answer how long we will stay in Iraq if you are elected? I fear that if a Republican is elected, then we will have four more years of Iraq" to this little quip: "My favor for Pres is Fred Thompson but if he dosen't run you will have my vote."

It's going to be interesting to who gets the most negative attention and just how many generic questions these pols can come up with to ask the general public without getting too wonky. Or as one user puts it: "The questions for these political YouTube videos need to be more specific. General topics leave no room for addressing specific problems in a specific way."