What a crazy, fun, intense, and exhausting week it turned out to be! There were parties, meetups, conferences, and endless meetings to be had, and it all concluded with the Webby Awards. I didn’t make it to the Webby Gala, but I did hit up the Webby Film & Video Awards, and had an amazing time with Tim Shey, Rachel Garcia, Erin Flood, Derek DeAngelis, Roy Weissman, and Vanessa Pappas!!

Vanessa Pappas, Kenyatta Cheese (Rocketboom), Erin Flood

The night started off with a cocktail reception, which I remarked felt like some sort of a high school reunion. Just about every person I adore from the Video 2.0 industry was there, and I felt at home.
We drank champagne, posed for pics (That’s Webby Award Winner Derek D and myself), and caught up with old friends as we readied ourselves for a three hour ceremony hosted by 30 Rock’s Judah Friedlander. As Derek D accepted the People’s Choice Award for Sports, we cheered him on from our seats (which happened to be next to where Lorne Michaels, Michel Gondry, Rosie Perez, and Seth Meyers were seated!!)

Derek D Accepts the FLD Webby Award from Michelle DeForest on Vimeo.

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Today marked the first year of Obama Girl’s term of office as reigning queen of political comedy on the web, since “I’ve Got a Crush… on Obama” first showed up on YouTube June 13, 2007. 100 Videos later, after over 50 million views and countless press stories, Barely Political has the #1 Most Viewed Video on YouTube again today, with a new rival for Obama Girl: the Incredible McCain Girl.

I think it’s some of the best work the Barely Political team has done — which has now grown to include the great preditor Tom Small, the hilarious writer and performer Rusty Ward, the still-rocking core team of Ben Relles, Leah Kaufman, and Amber Lee Ettinger, and new guys Mark Douglas and David Feingold. But they haven’t just been churning out Obama Girl videos and creating an increasingly weird and hilarious mythology for the characters, including OG’s alter-ego, Super Obama Girl — they’re also developing a truly unique brand of political satire with a YouTube aesthetic, with videos like Hillary Wasn’t Lying About Bosnia (by NNN’s Justin Johnson), Political Sex Scandals (a great Douglas / Kaufman collab) and a NNN staff favorite, Stimulus Package, where a couple of ’90’s rap rejects (played brilliantly by Ward and Douglas) fantasize about what mack daddies they’ll be with their $600 (embedded below, after the jump). Congrats to Ben, Amber, and Leah on a killer year, and thanks to everyone who’s helped expose the world to Barely Political, video after video, especially the Next New Networks team, YouTube, MSNBC, CNN and FOX News.

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It was a great weekend for politics here at NNN. This weekend we were all over the moon to see our very own Amber Lee Ettinger aka Obama Girl make a cameo in the opening of Saturday Night Live’s return episode after the Writer’s Strike. To quote Barely Political’s creator Ben Relles it was ‘beyond exciting’. Great job Amber and Ben.

And as the icing on the cake Noam Cohen in the New York Times did a great piece on Josh Marshall today and his winning of a George Polk Award. As soon as bloggers are considered, we know Josh will be up for a Pulitzer.

I know people love Obama Girl, but today it hit new heights — Amber’s made the front page of Newsweek.com and MSN.com with Barely Political’s latest video, Super Obama Girl, released today.

This is not a doctored image — the video’s embedded right on the front page as an exclusive, along with a Newsweek interview with Amber.

Brian Braiker of Newsweek writes — again, this is an actual quote:

Watch as Super Obama Girl, blasted by the senator’s ray of hope, does battle with the “forces of darkness,” which apparently include both Chuck Norris and Bill Clinton… It’s enough to make you, regardless of your politics, pray for an Obama victory — and four more years of Ettinger.

I can’t add anything, except… wow. Ben, Amber and Leah, you’ve done it yet again. Here’s the video.