When a racy brunette in a bikini gyrates in a steamy video, declaring a crush on US Democratic hopeful Senator Barack Obama, it's clear that the hoopla surrounding this election is going to be like nothing that came before.
In her own musical moment, formerly frosty Senator Hillary Clinton has been spotted on her own Web site swaying to music in a trance-like state and Senator John McCain in an unguarded moment sang, "bomb, bomb, bomb, bomb, bomb Iran."
These campaign snapshots, starring on computers everywhere, are partly the product of the YouTube video sharing craze which has opened a new dimension in political campaigns.
The latest sensation this past week handed Clinton's chief Democratic rival, Obama, unwanted top billing in a raunchy Web video by a scantily clad woman dubbed "Obama Girl."
"I got a crush on Obama ... I can't wait until 2008 ... I love it when you get hot on Hillary in debate," lip-synchs model Amber Lee Ettinger, grabbing her 15 minutes of YouTube fame in a video not linked to the campaign.
The mock music video features Ettinger dancing next to a picture of the toned 45-year-old candidate strolling out of the surf in Hawaii and has migrated from the Web to cable television.
Maybe all publicity is good publicity, but Lee Rainie, who studies the intersection of campaigns and the Web for the Pew Internet and American Life Project says viral videos raise worrying questions for candidates.
"You love that people are engaged with your campaign ... but it is pretty hard to have control of your message," Rainie said, adding that anyone with a modem and a video camera could seize an unwanted role in the race.
The line between an advertisement sanctioned by a candidate and one that just materialized and seizes the public imagination is also becoming blurred.
As candidates trade fire on Iraq, abortion and health care, sometimes traditional, offline, campaign hijinks are also rattling the dignity of the White House dreamers.
In one incident, former New York mayor Rudolph Giuliani was left red-faced after a 140-page blueprint of how to win the Republican nomination showed up in the New York Daily News late last year.
Operatives on other campaigns mocked the security lapse, from a former New York mayor and Sept. 11 hero, who is basing much of his campaign on ... security.
Top Democrats have not been spared embarrassment either.
Clips of Democratic front-runner Clinton's woefully off key rendition of the US national anthem at an Iowa campaign rally this year, picked up on an errant microphone, flashed around the world.
But the slick Clinton campaign, which rarely misses a trick, used the embarrassment to claim an avalanche of free publicity, launching a competition to chose a campaign song.
"I won't sing it in public ... unless I win!" Clinton said on one Web site video, then swayed to music in another, in a canny attempt to chip away at what critics say is the former first lady's starchy image.
McCain sung his off-the-cuff Iran-themed version of the Beach Boys hit Barbara Ann at a campaign event -- and soon lived to regret it.
His indiscretion, a sign that in the Internet age a candidate is never safe, was soon the subject of a political ad by liberal group MoveOn.org, which ended with the slogan "We can't afford another reckless president."
In one of the most surreal campaign ads ever, ex-senator Mike Gravel, the longest of long-shots on the Democratic side, stares blankly at a camera for over a minute, then walks off and throws a rock into a lake -- leaving puzzled viewers to draw their own conclusions.
In another bizarre moment, Dennis Kucinich, another Democratic also-ran swirled around a stage at a health care forum with his arms outstretched shouting "no strings, no strings" to show he was not a puppet of special interests.
The crowded Republican and Democratic presidential debates have also offered up their own share of odd moments.
Three candidates raised their hands and said they didn't believe in evolution in one Republican debate -- unthinkable in a developed Western nation other than the US where conservative Christians wield considerable influence within the party
In another light moment, Giuliani threw up his hands in mock fear of divine retribution at a lightning strike as he discussed abortion in a New Hampshire debate between Republican presidential hopefuls.
North Korean leader Kim Jong-un sent Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) greetings with what appeared to be restrained rhetoric that comes as Pyongyang moves closer to Russia and depends less on its long-time Asian ally. Kim wished “the Chinese people greater success in building a modern socialist country,” in a reply message to Xi for his congratulations on North Korea’s birthday, the state-run Korean Central News Agency reported yesterday. The 190-word dispatch had little of the florid language that had been a staple of their correspondence, which has declined significantly this year, an analysis by Seoul-based specialist service NK Pro showed. It said
On an island of windswept tundra in the Bering Sea, hundreds of miles from mainland Alaska, a resident sitting outside their home saw — well, did they see it? They were pretty sure they saw it — a rat. The purported sighting would not have gotten attention in many places around the world, but it caused a stir on Saint Paul Island, which is part of the Pribilof Islands, a birding haven sometimes called the “Galapagos of the north” for its diversity of life. That is because rats that stow away on vessels can quickly populate and overrun remote islands, devastating bird
‘CLOSER TO THE END’: The Ukrainian leader said in an interview that only from a ‘strong position’ can Ukraine push Russian President Vladimir Putin ‘to stop the war’ Decisive actions by the US now could hasten the end of the Russian war against Ukraine next year, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said on Monday after telling ABC News that his nation was “closer to the end of the war.” “Now, at the end of the year, we have a real opportunity to strengthen cooperation between Ukraine and the United States,” Zelenskiy said in a post on Telegram after meeting with a bipartisan delegation from the US Congress. “Decisive action now could hasten the just end of Russian aggression against Ukraine next year,” he wrote. Zelenskiy is in the US for the UN
A 64-year-old US woman took her own life inside a controversial suicide capsule at a Swiss woodland retreat, with Swiss police on Tuesday saying several people had been arrested. The space-age looking Sarco capsule, which fills with nitrogen and causes death by hypoxia, was used on Monday outside a village near the German border. The portable human-sized pod, self-operated by a button inside, has raised a host of legal and ethical questions in Switzerland. Active euthanasia is banned in the country, but assisted dying has been legal for decades. On the same day it was used, Swiss Department of Home