Today, James Rainey of the LA Times reports on McCain's less-than-stellar showing on the Internet's video clearinghouse:

Six of the top 10 videos returned by a "John McCain" YouTube search Thursday pegged the 71-year-old as inconsistent, extreme, wooden or a combination of the three. (The one clearly favorable piece came from the McCain campaign and focused on his Navy service.)

Contrast that with a YouTube search of "Barack Obama." It's a swoon fest, with virtually all of the top entries featuring the Illinois senator at his eloquent, uplifting best. The videos range from the pop-icon worship of Scarlett Johansson and John Legend & Co. in "Yes We Can" (closing in on 13 million views) to a clip of the candidate's speech on race after the explosion over the controversial sermons of his onetime pastor, the Rev. Jeremiah A. Wright Jr.

Obama, it has been reported over the past few days, has had his fair share of gaffes--but thus far, in the YouTube universe, McCain's are the main attraction.

For his part, Rainey suggests that McCain bust out a secret weapon in the YouTube wars: Wilford Brimley. "Yes, it's been years since the portly, walrus-mustachioed actor appeared in "Cocoon." But he's got those Quaker Oats ads and that stolid, old-man cool. And, yes, Brimley supports John McCain."

A creative suggestion (who doesn't love Brimley?), but methinks the McCain campaign is more than overstocked in the "stolid, old-man" category, "cool" or not--and therein may lie at least part of the YouTube problem. We'll see.