Imagine you're a Democratic politician running for president of the United States. Imagine meeting a total stranger--in Sin City, of all places--who has the temerity to ask if you'll take time out of your busy schedule to appear in a YouTube video he's dreamed up to boost your bid. Now imagine being Hillary Clinton or Barack Obama--and saying yes.

Of course, Mike Gravel is no Clinton or Obama, who actually register (and, in the case of Clinton, lead) in national opinion polls--which is exactly why the former Alaska senator agreed to "collaborate" with YouTuber rx2008 on the clip.

This is the weird, wonderful result:

Here's how it happened, according to Gravel national field director Jose Rodriguez. Excluded from the Nov. 15 Democratic debate in Las Vegas for not reaching CNN's $1 million fundraising threshold, Gravel nonetheless held a "virtual" debate nearby and attended that evening's annual Jefferson-Jackson Day Dinner. There, rx2008, a 39-year-old YouTube auteur, approached Gravel staffers and said he'd like "15 minutes to interview the senator." At first, he was dismissed--but then he mentioned that he was the guy behind "Sunday Bloody Sunday," one of the most popular political YouTube clips of all time.

"I was like, "Oh my God, that's my favorite video,'" says Rodriguez, laughing. "It's incredible. So I said, 'Well, sure--whatever you want to do with the senator is fine. Take him.'"

Gravel gamely agreed to meet with rx2008 the next day (Nov. 16 ) in a Los Angeles hotel room, where he spent 15 minutes reciting the lyrics to John Lennon's "Give Peace a Chance" and "Power to the People" "over and over again" (and adding a few of his own). Ten days later, the finished product--a surreal melange of psychedelic cartoon imagery and hilariously stilted "rapping"--arrived in Gravel's inbox. He immediately approved, and the ad debuted on YouTube within 24 hours, racking up 41,000 views in two days. "We were totally blessed," says Rodriguez.

Gravel, of course, is no stranger to odd user-generated ads. Remember "Rock'? (Gravel stares into camera; Gravel picks up rock; Gravel throws rock into pond; Fin.) That was pitched and produced by two young Southern California teachers, Matt Mayes and Guston Sondin-Klausner. "How does one put this?" says Rodriguez. "Senator Gravel is very creative. He loves working on... projects." But while "Rock" was merely inscrutable, "power to the people vs give peace a chance" marries an accessible message--I won't be silenced--to Gravel's reliably buzzworthy wackiness. The latter, in effect, reinforces the former. The spot won't win him the nomination, but it will get him noticed. Which is exactly what YouTube is good for.

"Mike is a serious guy," says Rodriguez, "but he knows there are a lot of ways to get his message out. This isn't 1992. 2004, Meetup was the big thing. 2008, it's going to be YouTube.  If this video is up a month, it could get hundreds of thousands of hits. In the debates, the senator is marginalized and only gets two or three minutes to speak. On the Web, he's got all the time"--and freedom--"he wants."

Far out, indeed.