Sleep And Water

Never has so much awesomeness been communicated in one small CNN article.

In an overlooked YouTube video posted on Friday, a spokesman for Barack Obama said the president-elect is committed to ending the policy that bars openly gay men and women from serving in the U.S. armed forces.

In a response to a question on the Web site Change.gov asking whether Obama would get rid of the “don’t ask, don’t tell” policy, Obama spokesman Robert Gibbs said: “You don’t hear politicians give a one-word answer much. But it’s ‘Yes.’”

There are three major victories available for consumption:

• Openly gay people will be able to serve in the military. Public support for this issue has actually shifted dramatically in the last 15 years, with a clear majority of just about every group, including conservatives, in favor of letting openly gay people serve.

• Bold policy statements are being made because of discussions on Change.gov, and through YouTube. The imminent White House communications secretary is paying attention to comments on a blog that the transition team created. Think you’d have been getting this from McCain, or even Hillary?

• Gibbs is saying things on YouTube before he’s talking to anybody from CNN. CNN is reporting the story secondhand. The first outlet Gibbs said this to was YouTube, a public forum, in response to comments on a public forum. A complete bypass of the conventional mass media, in favor of direct channels of communication over the Internet. Just beautiful.