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Midway through a routine Internet search, James Carter IV stumbled upon a video that just didn't seem right.
The grandson of former President Jimmy Carter and a self-fashioned Democratic opposition researcher, the younger Carter had watched countless hours of footage of Republican Mitt Romney and made it a habit to search YouTube every few days for keywords like "Romney" and "Republicans."
But on this day in August, one clip jumped out. There was Romney, in an undisclosed location, bluntly discussing a visit to a Chinese factory with substandard conditions.
"The hidden camera video — it was all blurred out at the beginning, and it was mysterious," Carter said. "It piqued my interest."
Something told him there might be more there than the brief clip posted on the YouTube channel "Anne Onymous."
Although not affiliated with any campaign or super PAC, Carter had made it a personal mission to help get Democrats elected in 2012 — and to do his part to push back against Romney's relentless campaign-trail mockery of his grandfather.
So Carter, 35, of Atlanta, set out track down the source of the video. He sent a message to the YouTube user seeking details. No luck. But then, after sharing links to the video on Twitter, Carter realized he had a new follower with the same name as the YouTube account. He quickly shot off a direct message.
"They were wary at first," Carter said in an interview with The Associated Press. "But they did respond."
What followed was a delicate, concerted effort to convince the source — still unknown to the public — that Carter could be trusted, and that the world had to see the rest of what was surreptitiously recorded as Romney spoke in May to donors who had paid $50,000 a person to attend the private fundraiser.
"James: This is extraordinary. Congratulations! Papa," the former president told his grandson Tuesday morning in an email...
http://www.businessweek.com/ap/2012-09-18/carter-grandson-arranged-romney-videos-release
The grandson of former President Jimmy Carter and a self-fashioned Democratic opposition researcher, the younger Carter had watched countless hours of footage of Republican Mitt Romney and made it a habit to search YouTube every few days for keywords like "Romney" and "Republicans."
But on this day in August, one clip jumped out. There was Romney, in an undisclosed location, bluntly discussing a visit to a Chinese factory with substandard conditions.
"The hidden camera video — it was all blurred out at the beginning, and it was mysterious," Carter said. "It piqued my interest."
Something told him there might be more there than the brief clip posted on the YouTube channel "Anne Onymous."
Although not affiliated with any campaign or super PAC, Carter had made it a personal mission to help get Democrats elected in 2012 — and to do his part to push back against Romney's relentless campaign-trail mockery of his grandfather.
So Carter, 35, of Atlanta, set out track down the source of the video. He sent a message to the YouTube user seeking details. No luck. But then, after sharing links to the video on Twitter, Carter realized he had a new follower with the same name as the YouTube account. He quickly shot off a direct message.
"They were wary at first," Carter said in an interview with The Associated Press. "But they did respond."
What followed was a delicate, concerted effort to convince the source — still unknown to the public — that Carter could be trusted, and that the world had to see the rest of what was surreptitiously recorded as Romney spoke in May to donors who had paid $50,000 a person to attend the private fundraiser.
"James: This is extraordinary. Congratulations! Papa," the former president told his grandson Tuesday morning in an email...
http://www.businessweek.com/ap/2012-09-18/carter-grandson-arranged-romney-videos-release