Barack Obama, a U.S. senator and potential 2008 presidential candidate, inked a deal recently to coordinate his Internet video campaign through Brightcove. Obama posted a video Tuesday announcing he’s forming an exploratory committee for the 2008 election. Brightcove will provide ongoing publication of campaign videos, creation of an Obama channel, and a syndication function that will allow bloggers and Web sites to publish campaign clips.

Brightcove looks, on the surface, similar to YouTube. But it’s very different, in that YouTube is designed for consumers to share videos with each other, while Brightcove is designed to allow businesses to publish videos to the Web.

Forget the politics for a moment… think of the implications of millions of people using their blogs to propagate the messages of their favorite candidates. We might live to see a day when it doesn’t take bazillion dollars to run for office.