THE IMPACT OF VIRAL MEDIA: An email from a former student of mine in the UK:

It has been a long time since I e-mailed you.

Anyway, my wife and I have been living in the UK since early 2000 and have been experiencing the US political scene from a distance since then. I watched the anti-Obama videos you linked today with some interest. I have always been a conservative so I would not vote for the Democractic nominee in any event, but I haven’t been an enthusiastic McCain guy. He seemed too much like Bob Dole the Sequel to me. He came to London and I could have met him, but I couldn’t be bothered at the time even though I deeply respect the sacrifices he made during his captivity.

Now I have watched Obama’s commercial to “slow down” the development of weapon’s programmes and more importantly saw the “Man in the Arena” ad linked on YouTube. I have to say that now I am a convert. I am not like the fake Republicans that the NY Times seems to find that support whatever liberal agenda the Times is pushing at the moment. There is a lot I would not like about a McCain Presidency. On the other hand, I love my country and, notwithstanding what Mickey Kaus thinks about having a president with dark skin somehow deterring a potential terrorist, it does us no good if Obama throws away our real defences. I can never see Obama saying or even thinking that “Do not flinch. Stand Up. We’re Americans and we will never surrender. They will.” That is the most important issue for me. It must trump all others.

I must say that now I will have to donate to the McCain campaign. I was going to sit this election out (except for voting), but now I see I need to do everything I can to help. I am a father. How could I not do as much as I can to make the world safe for my little girl? Anything less is negligent.

That one commercial made me a reluctant convert to the McCain campaign.

McCain has to hope that this will happen a lot between now and November.