Kevin is on a break until tomorrow. I’m filling in until he returns to the helm.
Remember that delicious story last year about John McCain’s admission that he could not use a computer on his own? It seemed to symbolize his out-of-touchness–especially when he had to run against a candidate who seemed to have the Internet in his DNA. At the annual Personal Democracy Forum conference, which began this morning in New York, the first panel discussion included Mark McKinnon, who was an adviser to the McCain campaign (until Barack Obama won the Democratic nomination) and Joe Rospars, who handled new media for the Obama campaign. Andrew Rasiej, the founder of PDF, opened the chat with what he thought was a quasi-provocative question: Mark, did McCain really not understand or use the Internet?
McKinnon should have had an answer to this obvious question. Something like:
Well, he was not the most ardent user of email and computers, but he quickly became one and certainly understood the signficance of the Internet in commerce, communication, and democracy. Look, he’s actively Twittering these days. And his Twitters about Iran even get attention from reporters who then ask the White House about them. So he’s fully engaged with this stuff.
But McKinnon said none of this. In fact, the GOP consultant didn’t even try to answer the question. He went on about how the digital revolution has changed politics, journalism, and the music business. (McKinnon is a failed professional songwriter.) He talked about how the Internet has made it so much easier for campaigns to harnass the enthusiasm of volunteers. (Duh.) He praised Obama–whom he had told McCain he could not work against–for his campaign’s innovation. (Duh, again.) He took a shot at Al Gore for claiming to have invented the Internet. (Which Gore did not claim.)
But McKinnon didn’t say anything about McCain and the Internet. He totally ducked the question. I would take that silence as confirmation of that 2008 meme. Any other explanation?
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