Hillary Clinton and the Sopranos

I don’t know why I’m so interested in the Clinton campaign videos. Every presidential candidate has them, but there’s something about Hillary’s that make them so much more fun to pick apart and enjoy. Maybe it’s because while she clearly has the same vocal coach as Bill, she never picked up her husband’s knack for playing himself in fictional media.

The most recent one has spurred some mild interest. Finishing the online video series where she danced like a cobra and asked America to provide her with a campaign song, Hillary makes a final vid in a diner, spoofing the Sopranos finale with a cliffhanger ending without revealing which song won the contest (if you’re curious, it’s Celine Dion’s “You And I”; it totally should have been Journey’s “Don’t Stop Believin'”, though, which lent itself to this video’s soundtrack).

Anyway, there was some mild controversy about the use of the songs, copyrights, piracy, and symbolism. Virginia Heffernan from the Times covers it all here: “Did HBO give Hillary Clinton permission to refer to “The Sopranos,” and recut the scene? If so, does permission from the notoriously copyright-tight-fisted HBO constitute — in any way — an endorsement of the Clinton campaign? And if not, are the Clintons just going around recutting and mashing up pirated material, including “Don’t Stop Believin’,” like the commoners on YouTube?!”

Decide for yourself. Personally, I’m much more interested in the Benadryl commercial that appears on the TV screen that’s pointing at her in the video than any of that.