Republicans Embracing YouTube with "Tons and Tons" of Uploads...but No One Beats Nancy Pelosi's Cat Video

WASHINGTON, D.C. --  Stung from  the 2008 election losses, Republican members of Congress are uploading videos to YouTube in much greater numbers than Democrats.

Here's what YouTube's Olivia Ma told the Beet.TV Online Video Roundtable in Washington, D.C. last week.  (At 2:00)

"It's been very stark to see how eager the Republican Party has been to get on YouTube....uploading tons and tons of videos to YouTube.  Absolutely a fire has been lit under that party in terms of YouTube, specifically."

In January, YouTube launched HouseHub, site which provides each member of the House of Representatives their own YouTube channel. 

In quick comparison, House Minority Leader John Boehner has uploaded 286 videos (that's about one a day) with 55,000 channel views vs. House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer who has uploaded just 78 videos and has only 5,275 channel views.

A separate YouTube site for the U.S. Senate is called "Senate Hub."

Earlier in this segment, veteran political strategist Joe Trippi says that the Republicans are making waves as the "insurgent party." 

With a different take is NBC News Washington Bureau Chief  Mark Whitaker. He says that Republicans have had the more sophisticated approach to media for many years.

Later in this video, Obama campaign video strategist Max Harper says that many despite the the battle between the parties, many young people are not aligned with parties but movements.

Some reports find that the Republican party is more successful on Twitter.  

Nancy Pelosi Has Viral Hit with Her Office Cats

If the Republicans are winning on YouTube, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi is putting up a good fight .  She has 1,835 videos uploaded to YouTube and 250,000 channel views, which makes her among  the most prolific uploader in Congress.

She seems to have a viral hit with her video entitled The Capitol Cat Cam (pasted below).  It has 377,704 views.

Online Video Roundtable 

This is the first of a series of segments edited from the two-hour event held on December 1 at the Embassy of Finland in Washington, D.C. If you'd like to watch the entire program, you can find it looping on our Livestream channel.

As of today, there have been 8,000 viewers watching 100,000 minutes of the Webcast.

Andy Plesser, Executive Producer