What Politicians Are Actually Saying, In Case You Care

So much of political coverage is hearsay and paraphrase. But actually sitting and listening to politicians talk in order to find out what they think is a fate worse than death. What's a mildly interested political observer to do?

Now, thanks to a super-cool new Google gadget, you can cut to the chase. The Elections Video Search Google Gadget lets you search for keywords in transcribed YouTube videos from the Politicians channel. The gentlemen from Mountain View admit that accuracy is far from 100 percent at the moment—many of the transcriptions are terrible and the videos aren't well-sorted—but it's a start. You can even search just McCain or just Obama clips. And it sits right on your iGoogle homepage, so even the truly lazy can satisfy the smallest tremors of curiosity about what those guys are blathering about.

Via the Official Google Blog