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Mark Murray, NBC Deputy Political Director

Domenico Montanaro, NBC News Political Reporter



Anonymous YouTube creator unmasked

Posted: Wednesday, March 21, 2007 7:52 PM by Mark Murray
Filed Under:

From NBC's Mark Murray
The maker of the much-talked about anti-Hillary Clinton "1984" YouTube video has been unmasked. His name is Philip de Villes, and he was an internet strategist for Sherrod Brown's 2006 Senate campaign last year and worked (until now) at the Democratic internet firm Blue State Digital, which had been under contract with the Barack Obama campaign.

De Villes' identity was first uncovered by the liberal blog Huffington Post.

Obama spokesman Bill Burton released this statement to NBC News: "The Obama campaign and its employees had no knowledge and had nothing to do with the creation of the ad. We were notified this evening by a vendor of ours, Blue State Digital, that an employee of the company had been involved in the making of this ad. Blue State Digital has separated ties with this individual and we have been assured he did no work on our campaign's account."

Thomas Gensemer, the managing director at Blue State Digital, issued this release: "This afternoon, an employee at our firm, Phillip de Vellis, received a call from Arianna Huffington of 'The Huffington Post' regarding the '1984' video currently circulating online. Initially, de Vellis refused to respond to her requests. He has since acknowledged to Blue State Digital that he was the creator of the video. Pursuant to company policy regarding outside political work or commentary on behalf of our clients or otherwise, Mr. de Vellis has been terminated from Blue State Digital effective immediately."

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AND IT WASN'T A"REPUBLICAN RIGHT WING NUT JOB"? WILL WONDERS NEVER CEASE?
Although he supports Obama and hopes "he wins the primary", Phil De Vellis denies that the Obama camp had any knowledge of the ad beforehand, and said that "The specific point of the ad was that Obama represents a new kind of politics, and that Senator Clinton's 'conversation' is disingenuous. And the underlying point was that the old political machine no longer holds all the power.". I agree with his view of Obama and of Clinton. However, I feel that "if" Obama's camp "really" didn't know about this beforehand, that De Vellis damaged Obama's campaign by leaving room for doubt. This is one more slam which will help Obama and Clinton cancel each other out. He "is" correct that "the old political machine no longer holds all the power", but this renegade act was still an "old political machine" tactic.
It was a great ad!! It showed Hillary's followers as brain dead zombies. It showed Hillary mouthing ridiculous inanities. "a conversation with you" "American team" "exactly where I stand" The Bush dynasty has been a disaster for America.... A Clinton dynasty might be just as bad. She won't apologize for her Iraq vote (She didn't make a mistake, she was just "mislead") and she says we'll need to keep the troops there a little longer. Can you say opportunist? How about self serving?
It's all very interesting...what will this campaign become? Should be fun to watch. Although I am a bit concerned about how much mis-information will be posted without responsibility.
A large majority of voters have no idea what the ad is trying to say. I think the ad will mean little. I agree the most damage is the two main candidates are another step closer to canceling each other. The winners are the other Dem candidates.
Aren't all politicians opportunist and self serving? An old cliche comes to mind, if a politicians lips are moving they are lying.
Now don't some of you "feel" bad about blaming this ad on those highly decorated Vietnam War Veterans the swiftboaters? They always took credit for their ads, and didn't run away from debate. Thanks for saving our country from sKerry folks!!!
You know, I am starting to warm up to the idea of Hillary as President. She tosses malcontents out of her fund raisers. When opponent’s supporters get a little too loud or popular at Democratic functions her supporters just sort of usher them out of the way. She will end the war, (notice she gives no time table) but keep a military force in the region. Unauthorized biographies all say she was a bit of a play ground bully who wasn’t averse to using a little physical force to get her way; supposedly she even slapped her first boyfriend for giving away one of her six bunnies without her say so. She loves money and doesn’t mind bending the rules a little bit to get some. By taking the nice furniture from the White House when she left and not bringing it back until the press gave her a bad time she obviously believes in asking for forgiveness rather than for permission. So those are all pluses. She says she will take big business to task, which won’t happen. She claims she will put into place universal health care which again probably won’t happen, even with a Democratic controlled house and senate. Those are the negatives, but will be fun to watch. And just for PURE entertainment Tony and Hugh Rodham will be along for the ride, except now they will be the First Brothers, I can hardly wait for their special brand of high jinks. Need a pardon, get your orders in early. Tony and Hugh and get the pardon you deserve. I would be remiss to leave out former First Brother. For Clinton investigators, Roger is the gift that keeps on giving. Last week,(according to Time) the House Government Reform Committee wrote him asking about his role in clemency pleas made by six convicted felons, including Rosario Gambino, a jailed New Jersey restauranteur reputed to be a soldier in the Gambino crime family. Committee documents show that Rosario Gambino's daughter wrote a $50,000 check to one of Roger Clinton's companies in September, 1999, some months after Roger sought leniency from the U.S. Parole Commission for Rosario, who is serving a 45-year sentence for heroin trafficking. Finally, what do you all think ole Bill will do to occupy himself while Hill is busy running the country? Bill kind of reminds me of an old hound we had once. He wasn’t good for much other than howling at the moon and running rabbits, and licking himself. You hated him for it, but how could you blame him, because you know a hound has got to do what a hound has got to do. Yep, she is probably has more sack than most of the Republicans running and the side shows will be pure entertainment. You go girl. I think you got my vote.
dave, the smoke from the smokies must be getting to you, you do mean, lying cowards, army after action reports clearly debunk their lies, they were paid lairs, who ironiclly supported the , the vice president of draft dogging, and my daddy says I don't have to go President. wonderful examples aren't they.
Rick are you still spreading that "Clinton's trashed the white house story"? A republican senator asked the GAO to get an accounting of everything they had "stolen" and he would see that they paid for it. The GAO investigated and said no one in the white knew of anything that was missing. When Clinton was president the Republicans blamed him for everything but the weather, that they blamed on el nino however Newt Gingrich blamed Clinton for el nino. Call rove and ask for a new Clinton story he would be happy to fabricate one.
The Masochist says 'Hit Me!' and the Sadist says"...no."
Really Rufus, I am starting to warm up to the thought of another Clinton run Whitehouse. Serious as a triple by-pass.
"Newt Gingrich blamed Clinton for el nino"??? So that's where Liberals got the ideaR they could control the weather. Damn you Newt
Rick Germany, my parents died of heart attacks. I have 4 siblings who have had triple and quaddruple bypasses. One had a heart transplant. Your comments, sir, are callous. And ,by the way, check on the health record of Vice President Cheney.
Desomnd no offense meant at all towards you or your family. I aplogize to and to anyone else hurt by my poor choice of words. However I am still as serious as I can be about Hill.
Rick, If you were serious about anything you might consider not spreading the lie about the Clinton administration stealing White House furniture (which was debunked years ago). You might also consider realizing that 1) no one cares about the faux scandals of the Clinton era as they are completely irrelevant to the present situation and 2) try not to publicly state your desires to see a continuance of American policy disfunction.
Rule # 6,000,963,002 Republicans can not bring up anything about Clinton, but we reserve the right to bring up Watergate and Nixon at every turn. See Rule #1 for clarification. Rule #1 Do as we say, not as we do.
I heard on one of the cable news shows that de Villis will probably be offered all kinds of new jobs because of his wonderfully creative ad. How is his ad wonderfully creative? He copied an ad and changed the face on the screen. He anonymously put it out on the web, allowing all kinds of speculation. Low down, I'd say. Maybe Bush or Karl Rove will hire him. He'd fit in well.


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