According to Quoi9, France-based DailyMotion (an up-and-coming Youtube competitor), has been inundated with requests (500,000+ and counting) for a video of an alleged private political meeting involving Socialist Party leadership candidate and future presidential hopeful, Ségolène Royal. In the video, Ms Royal offers some potentially controversial remarks about France's teachers and enforcement of the 35-hour work week.

(Confession: although I live with a francophone and am father of twin daughters who speak better french than me, I must confess I was not able to follow the full conversation, which means that I must rely heavily on Quoi9's summary. My bad.)

Interestingly, the release of the video, which was shot in January, appears timed to coincide with the party's leadership vote. And as with John Kerry's unfortunate remarks in the closing days of the US midterm elections, and George Allen's famous "macaca" clip, could impact the outcome, though to what extent remains to be seen and may ultimately be impossible to verify.

That said, the bigger questions in my mind are: 1) how might these "gaffes" impact what politicians say and do in the future? For example, will it result in even greater message sterilization that could further distance politicians from voters who are demanding greater transparency and openness? and, 2) to what extent will citizen-generated video be usurped by political parties in the future as guerilla-style campaign weaponry to be unleashed at the most appropriate occasions?  Is this simply an evolution in campaigning and grassroots politics, or is it something more nefarious?