Yes.we.can

Just like Obama I'm 3 for 3 on my predictions for tonight (well, actually, he's 4 for 4 including the U.S. Virgin Islands):

-Saturday, 2/9: Washington/Obama (progressive, young, liberal state)

Louisiana/Obama (African-American voters)

Nebraska/Obama (His mom's from Kansas)

I said before I wasn't sure about Maine--but I now am.

Obama's huge margin of victory--68%-32% in Nebraska, 68% to 31% in Washington, likely to be 20%+ in Louisiana by the end of the night--is going to send shock waves through the political world; how can Hillary claim to be the stronger candidate against McCain when she's getting wallopped in states that just a week ago she was leading in--until voters got to hear from the candidates up close?!

I think the Maine caucus-goers will get swept up in the Obama wave; it'll be closer than it's been tonight, but look for Obama to win.

[Earlier...]

Watching the results come in for Lousiania, Nebraska, and Washington. For the latter two states, which hold caucus, the early returns look like an Obama landslide--he's currently winning like 66% to 33%.

If the blog posts on the local papers in Seattle and Omaha, many from caucus-goers, are accurate, I think the final margin will be even greater--the first returns are generally from rural areas while Obama's "strength" tends to be in the big cities.

I think Clinton's done, if she winds up losing states by 70-30 margins. There will be a snowball effect, and with it looking likely that Obama will sweep Maryland/D.C./Virginia Tuesday, the perception will build that Hillary's time has come and gone.

Maine's the only possible roadblock in an Obama seven-state sweep; Clintonites are claiming she's going to win there, and an internal Obama memo even has the state going 51-49 for Clinton.

But I think the results today plus the fact Maine is a caucus will result in an Obama victory. People like to be on the winning side, especially when they can feel good about themselves at the same time.

On a related note, I don't really know anything about Will.i.am, but based on the video he made about Barack Obama he's a really interesting guy. He did it on his own, while watching Obama's speech in New Hampshire.

How great is it that he was inspired by a speech Obama gave after finishing second? That he was watching the speech to begin with? That the Obama campaign had nothing to do with it? That it's gotten something like 10 million views on YouTube in the past week?

I really liked Will.i.am's blog, where he has a lengthy explanation about how he came to create the video. The best part--he doesn't even mention Obama's name in the post!

There are a lot of celebrities in the video; I think even more are going to start jumping on the Obama bandwagon. Usually, I think Hollywood-types are pretty annoying when they start talking about politics--they don't invest enough time in reading and learning and watching to have anything meaningful to add; and as celebs, they're so used to everything being about them, that often the only way they can process politics is in a selfish, childish way (I, I, I).

But, many celebrities are very good at what they do, which often involves words and ideas--reading scripts, writing and singing songs, making art.

And so, when they respond to Obama on that level, they're actually pretty qualified--experts, you might even say.

Here's some of what Will.i.am had to say:

it was that speech...
like many great speeches...
that one moved me...
because words and ideas are powerful...

it inspired me...
it inspired me to look inside myself and outwards towards the world...
it inspired me to want to change myself to better the world...
and take a "leap" towards change...
and hope that others become inspired to do the same...
change themselves..
change their greed...
change their fears...
and if we "change that"
"then hey"..
we got something right...???...

1 week later after the speech settled in me...
I began making this song...
I came up with the idea to turn his speech into a song...
because that speech effected and touched my inner core like nothing in a very long time...

it spoke to me...

because words and ideas are powerful...

I just wanted to add a melody to those words...
I wanted the inspiration that was bubbling inside me to take over...

so i let it..

I wasn't afraid to stand for something...
to stand for "change"...
I wasn't afraid of "fear"...
it was pure inspiration...

so I called my friends...
and they called their friends...
in a matter of 2 days...
We made the song and video...

Usually this process would take months...
a bunch of record company people figuring out strategies and release dates...
interviews...
all that stuff...
but this time i took it in my own hands...
so i called my friends sarah pantera, mike jurkovac, fred goldring, and jesse dylan to help make it happen...
and they called their friends..
and we did it together in 48 hours...
and instead of putting it in the hands of profit we put it in the hands of inspiration...

It's pretty interesting stuff; here's what I wrote about the video when I saw it:

Just look at what's going on with Obama's Yes We Can music video that's just been released--the YouTube clip I watched had 311 views--with 100 comments, 267 favorited, and 385 ratings (4 stars).

I've never seen that before--it's pretty amazing that 1 out of every 3 person who watched it made a comment, and that almost everyone made it a favorite. Maybe almost as startling as seeing long YouTube clips of Obama's speeches hitting a million views.

In further testimony to Obama's YouTube popularity, it cracks me up that famous YouTube clips that have nothing to do with Obama--like Britney Fan Crying, and Laughing Baby--throw Obama's name into their keywords.

The music video's below; it's pretty effective. Watch it back-to-back with his actual South Carolina speech; the brilliant anti-Clinton/1984 Apple ad; and, of course, a couple of the Obama Girl vids.