A lot has been made over the last few days about the mash-up video below depicting Hillary Clinton in a not so favorable light (that’s an understatement). However, I’m not going to talk about the guy who got fired from his job for making it, or whether it’s good/bad for Barack Obama. What I find fascinating is how it appears this will change politics forever.

I say that because of the hysteria surrounding the video. Who made it? Were Republicans behind it? Did Obama do this on purpose? The greater impact is that ANYONE could have made this. Someone in their basement in Kansas or a guy in a studio in LA. Video editing software is so cheap and easy to use now, many people have it on their home computers. This is only the beginning everyone, these videos are going to start popping up everwhere (in fact, they already are). This is going to change politics forever. So many ads will be floating around, I would argue that the most interesting and compelling ones will get attention. This generally means it won’t be the ones coming from the campaigns, but individuals themselves. With YouTube and other video sharing sites viewed by millions a day, it is going to be a lot tougher for campaigns to compete. Plus, how will campaigns respond to all these new ads? How will campaign finance laws make sure campaigns aren’t hiding behind fake user names? This video has raised a lot of questions, and not many answers to this point.

If you think campaign attack ads are vicious already, just wait until everyone with a computer can make one.