| Page 2 of 2 < |
Anti-Clinton Ad Puts Spotlight on Obama
"It's going to be rolled out in other campaigns," Gensemer said.
De Vellis, in a blog he wrote after he had been identified by Huffingtonpost.com, appeared to acknowledge the trouble he had brewed. "I support Senator Obama," he wrote. "I hope he wins the primary. (I recognize that this ad is not his style of politics)."
  Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee member, and Democratic Presidential hopeful, Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton, D-N.Y., waits for the start of the committee's hearing on the long term health impact from the Sept. 11 attacks, Wednesday, March 21, 2007, on Capitol Hill in Washington. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci) (Evan Vucci - AP) 
| ||||||||||||||||||||
Clinton on Thursday said the Internet had become "new territory for everybody."
"We're all trying to figure out what this new technology means not only to political campaigns but to how we do business, how we relate to one another," she said.
The unmasking of de Vellis also cracks the enticing image of the Internet as a freewheeling arena where average citizens engage in vigorous, often provocative, discourse.
De Vellis said he acted like any techno-savvy, politically attuned Web surfer. He said he worked on a Sunday in his apartment, using his Mac computer and video editing software to alter an updated version of a classic Apple ad that aired during the Super Bowl in 1984.
But the fact remains that de Vellis was a political professional. He had worked for Democratic Rep. Sherrod Brown in his successful campaign for U.S. Senate in Ohio. And he was working for a firm with political clients, including Obama.
"Obviously some people are going to look at this and see that I'm working in politics and they'll think that it's kind of disingenuous or not genuine," de Vellis said in an interview with The Associated Press. "I still think that ordinary citizens can change politics. It could have been anyone else who could have made this ad."
The ad portrayed Clinton on a huge television screen addressing an audience that sat in a trancelike state. A female athlete, running ahead of storm troopers, sprints into the auditorium and tosses a hammer at the screen, destroying Clinton's image. "On January 14th the Democratic primary will begin," the text states. "And you will see why 2008 isn't going to be like '1984.'" It signs off with "BarackObama.com"
___
On the Web:
