Apple’s 1984 spot is back (again), this time mashed up with some Hillary Clinton footage to create something that is ostensibly a campaign spot for Barack Obama. See it over here on YouTube, where it’s fast closing in on a million views as of this writing.

The source of the clip remains a mystery, even as it’s being discussed everywhere from Huffington Post to Backstreets.com. It’s interesting to note that the YouTube account that posted the video, ParkRidge47, was created about two weeks ago, and that Hillary Clinton was born in Park Ridge, Illinois, in 1947.

Innocent mashup or Machiavellian use of the Web? Campaign connections or not? No one knows, but we’ll probably find out before too long. It’s not at all a stretch to believe it was simply created by a tech-savvy political junkie looking for something to do on a Saturday afternoon.

Whatever the source, though, the clip is a keen reminder that the barrier to entry into the national political discourse is lower than ever. Look for 2008 to be the first Internet election, the way the Nixon-Kennedy debate proved that 1960 was the first television election.

The future is now. Say hello to 1984.

MARCH 21 UPDATE: Well, this didn’t take long. Turns out it was done on a Sunday afternoon, not a Saturday.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, March 20th, 2007 at 6:00 am and is filed under Internet Stuff.