Viral Video Watch: Mock Obama 2012 Ad

Trending today on YouTube: the National Republican Senatorial Committee's mock Obama reelection campaign video, cleverly pre-empting the president's official 2012 campaign kick-off video that was released yesterday.

Since the RNSC video was released on April 1st as an April Fool’s prank, it has garnered more than half a million views on YouTube — helped by the video's title, "President Barack Obama's First Ad of 2012."

The fake ad, as a GOP-backed effort, naturally aims to serve as an anti-re-election commercial by highlighting how the group feels Obama has failed to keep promises made during his 2008 campaign.

The video rips the idea that he “brought Americans together” by showing images and video clips of protests and, for a split second, a poster that say “STOP Obama.” It then goes on to mention how he helped “end our dependence on American energy” by showing images of high gas prices in the $4 range.  

The narrator then mentions how he “consults with key decision makers” and images of Obama with Paul McCartney and a clip of him saying how he hasn’t spoken with BP’s CEO yet.  

To show how he tackled the “great challenges of our nation” clips of Obama filing out his bracket for March Madness on TV are shown. His spending methods are also attacked with a clip of VP Joe Biden and a graphic of  “The Obama Method” which is to “Spend More.” And if there were any doubt that this was a fake ad, the video ends with an animated Obama riding a unicorn trailing a rainbow across the sky.

The Republican National Committee also wasted no time in taking potshots at the president's re-election campaign. The RNC launched a website, Hope Isn’t Hiring, with the motto: Help Defeat Obama’s Billion Dollar Campaign.  

A donation-tracker on the website shows that so far more than $9,000 has been raised, with the goal set at $270,000. There's a link to the RNC YouTube video below that is anti-Obama; and a map by state to show who’s donating where and how much. The sections of the site are labeled: OBAMACARE, OBAMANOMICS, BROKEN PROMISES, SOCIAL ISSUES, and DONATE TODAY.

Get ready for more viral mudslinging — and Fauxbama pranks from the RNC? — as the 2012 campaign heats up.