But it's not just the number of videos, it's the number of times they've been viewed and the content of the ads. For instance, the top Obama video, "A More Perfect Union", has been viewed 5,041,747 times. "A More Perfect Union," by the way, is a moving Obama speech about "the fundamental path by which America can work together to pursue a better future." The top McCain video, "Celeb", has been viewed 2,145,335 times. "Celeb" is an attack ad against Obama, the gist of which is that he's the "world's biggest celebrity" and that's really bad or something...and stuff.
Let's move on to the second-most popular videos on each candidate's YouTube page. For Obama, it's "Barack Obama on Ellen", in which "Barack shows off his dancing skills." That video, also positive (unless you hate Obama's dancing - ha) has received 2,490,234 views. In contrast, John McCain's second-most watched video is "The One", yet another McCain attack ad against Obama, with 1,570,644 views.
Overall, Barack Obama's YouTube channel has received 17,561,823 views. John McCain's YouTube channel? Just 1,893,074 views, 11% of Obama's.
Another interesting, albeit qualitative, observation: Obama's videos are not just viewed far more times than John McCain's videos, they are also far more positive. For instance, contrast uplifting, positive videos like "Obama's Victory Speech," "Yes We Can," and "My Plans for 2008" with John McCain's "most viewed" videos, almost all of which - "Ayers," "Passed Over," "McCain is Right," etc. - are negative attacks on Barack Obama. Perhaps it's not surprising, then, that McCain's videos generally have user ratings of "2" or "3" - not good - while Obama's are in the "4" or "5" range - superb - across the board. Who's running the "negative" campaign again?
More interesting stats help tell the story of two campaigns passing in the night and heading in wildly different directions. Barack Obama's YouTube page has 106,626 subscribers, while John McCain's page has just 26,802 subscribers - 25% of Obama's. Barack Obama's YouTube page lists 25,270 "friends," while John McCain's doesn't even list any "friends." Hmmmmm.
The bottom line, at least for YouTube, is that Barack Obama is way ahead of John McCain. Of course, what else would you expect when McCain barely knows what the internet is or how to "do a Google." :)