Compare and contrast: In the last week, two Hillary Clinton-themed videos have sprung up on YouTube, looking to go viral. The first is an anti-Hillary spoof of her song contest featuring LA comedienne Candace Brown in a pretty good imitation that was, sadly, better than what she had to work with; the second is a blatant rip-off of "I've Got A Crush On Obama" called "Hott4Hill" featuring young Hollywood-ite Taryn Southern in a forgettable but halfway entertaining confection that seems mainly an excuse for her to wear various bikinis and be gorgeous while singing.

Here's the problem with the first vid: Though entertaining, it never quite got there; it sort of bashed by bashing, not really by proving, or even really being right (e.g. "I voted for the war but am now against it, but if given the chance, I would unapologetically vote for that war, but not for this war" - wha?). The first rule of good comedy is that it has to be smart, and right. Surely there are better ways to mock Hillary's Iraq war vote than the above. Also, the jokes never got to the next level — the absurdity of the John Kerry "Milkshake" theme song could have been heightened, or the (very funny) scrolling song list could have been highlighted more (even better would have been having Hillary narrate one of those K-Tel commercials — but either way, follow through on something. Ultimately, though, this was a bunch of good ideas that were left undeveloped and as a result were left packing a light slap rather than a punch.

The "Crush on Hill" vid is charming in and of itself because of the dewy beauty of its young star (not to mention her fetching figure), the shrewd use of cute kids (especially singing along on the track — you can't go wrong with that one), and the blatant ripping off of the "Crush On Obama" formula, which, as we saw with "Box In A Box" is a formula that works. Alas, it lacks the, er, narrative coherence of "Crush On Obama" — no, really, hear me out — because "Crush On Obama" sent up the hype surrounding Obama as a pin-up/icon and took it to absurd heights, while "Hott4Hill" doesn't really make sense on its face (no offense to Hillary, or to Southern, or their desperate, forbidden love). The tune, too, is easy-on-the-ears pop ditty, but lacks the stubborn staying power of the genuine article.

The real winners in this process? Well, for one, the ObamaGirl team, which is now two for two on their creative efforts, and has clearly differentiated themselves in terms of staying power and Zeitgeist-tapping. The buzz might give Hillary a slight lift, but probably not much, unless the girl-on-girl titillation factor of the second video proves too irresistible to the cable nets (hey, that might open up an avenue of "grassroots support" as yet untapped). The principals in these videos will probably experience a bump (especially, one hopes, the talented and funny Brown), but more generally, the relative quality of these videos plus the effort that obviously went into making them further demonstrate that the viral vid business is here to stay, and will probably end up being a pretty critical element of the campaign. Our bets are on a Ron Paul tribute video next; we hear he's popular on the Internet.

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