There was a lot of reaction to my piece yesterday on the Kos-decreed politics of tomorrow. In the future, camcorder bearing hostiles will hound every politician’s every public appearance. When the inevitable occurs and that politician calls one of his antagonists a “macaca,” the next viral YouTube sensation will be born.

Actually, Markos’ theory is a bit subtler than that. Markos acknowledges that the number of politicians who will do something so stupid as call someone with a whirling camcorder an obscure ethnic slur is probably limited. So far, only George Allen has proven that dumb.

The heart of Markos’ plan is that a YouTube library of unscripted moments can help craft his opponent’s narrative. For instance, imagine a politician who repeatedly jumps ugly (to use a favorite Chris Wallace phrase) on his staff for logistical errors and said instances of jumping ugly are put into a video library. If a central theme of that politician’s narrative is that he’s a super-sweet guy, this library would do considerable damage.

In writing up Markos’ vision for the politics of the future, I said recording the other side’s politicians was a pretty good idea and something that Republicans should do also. Not everyone agrees. Matt Margolis, one of the brightest young minds on the conservative internets had this to say in a piece titled “Having an Agenda is so 1994”:

“I'm sorry. I just don't agree. We should be above the sick game of gotcha politics. If there's anything we should have learned from 1994 is that Americans respond to an agenda, and Republicans shouldn't need to sink down to Kos's level. I'd much rather see Republicans win on ideas than see Democrats lose because of some video showing an unflattering moment they'd sooner forget.”

A couple of points by way of rejoinder. First, there is no reason why having an agenda and playing full contact politics are mutually exclusive. The earliest incarnations of Bill Clinton were chock full of ideas. Yes, they were stupid ideas like socializing 16% of our economy, but no one could accuse the 1992 edition of Bill Clinton of running a content-free campaign. That same campaign, by the way, was the one that brought the innovation of a “war room” into being.

Second, I don’t think seeing politicians in their unscripted moments is a bad thing. Actually, I think it’s a good thing. You learn more about John Edwards from watching that 2 minute YouTube of him primping his beautiful hair than you would if you attended a dozen of his rallies where he earnestly prattled on about the Two Americas™. John Kerry’s moment when he cursed at his Secret Service agent for making him fall on the ski slopes showed more about his character than all of the canned pabulum that Bon Shrum cooked up.

I’ll even take it a little bit further. One of the main reasons I support Mitt Romney is because I got to see him years ago during countless unscripted moments. I got to know the man, not the political figure, and found him to be extraordinary. I think it would benefit Romney if cameras followed him 24 hours a day; I know it would ruin many other politicians if cameras followed them 24/7, although the video release of “Ted Kennedy Gone Wild” might prove popular with the younger set.

BUT WHAT OF THE GOTCHA MOMENTS? Is that a fair concern? Let us use George Allen as our guide.

It would be tough to imagine a worse gotcha moment than calling a young guy an ethnic slur, especially while that guy was pointing a video camera at you. For obvious reasons, this moment said nothing good about Allen. As offensive and bullying as Allen’s comment was, I still say the worst aspect of the moment was the candidate’s rank stupidity. Really – could a politician do anything dumber?

But imagine this – what if Allen had instantly apologized, admitted he was way out of line, and publicly asked the Webb campaign for the kid’s contact information so he could apologize personally and privately? If he did that, the moment would have likely come and gone. We all do stupid things, and the public is more forgiving of politicians than the media generally recognize. After all, Bill Clinton, in spite of all his highly publicized personal pathologies, not only served two terms but left office with high approval ratings.

Of course, Allen never properly apologized. Even several weeks later when he debated Webb on national TV, he offered the ludicrous defense that he just “made up a word.” I would argue that the entire macaca incident makes a strong case for the goodness and rightness of gotcha moments. If it weren’t for the macaca moment, chances are George Allen would today be one of the frontrunners for the Republican nomination. That would be nice, no?

AS TO WHETHER OR NOT REPUBLICANS SHOULD stoop to the same levels as Kos has commanded his minions, I assume Matt doesn’t offer that as a serious argument. Politics ain’t beanbag; I would prefer our candidates and operatives knew as much. Besides, as someone who’s made a virtual cottage industry of mocking John Edwards and the divide between the his political and personal lives, I guess I’m probably not the right guy to get all holier-than-thou on the topic of stooping.

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