Weigel

Kate Kaye beats me to the punch and talks to Lucas Baiano , the 22-year-old who directs Tim Pawlenty's videos. It's good to hear what actually influences Baiano, who's often just compared to Michael Bay.

A fan of Ron Howard and James Cameron, Baiano also is influenced by lesser-known directors including Paul Haggis, director of "Crash," and Sean Ellis, who directed "Cashback" and "The Broken."

Kaye lines up the best of Baiano, video by video. This is compelling while revealing that Baiano gets very far on a few techniques -- and, of court, on the media's short attention span. The tricks are jagged audio cuts, verite-style camerawork (read: shaky shots done at angles), stock footage of people looking sad (if we're talking Democrats) or happy (if we're talking Republicans), and booming music. And then there's the most important trick -- audio that we hear distorted, as if it's beaming in from Winston Smith's pirate radio.

2008, "Hillary":

2010, "Remember November":

2011, "Courage to Stand":