Reducto Ad Candidatum
Nate, you're right, that's not a very distinguished first post, but it is a pretty funny one, and hey, here at midnight on TexasOhioVirginiaRhodeIslandPrimaryMadnessSuperDuperTuesday, that counts for something. I bet John McCain really does tip 9%, and I further bet that when he receives poor service at a restaurant, he chews out the waitstaff while repeatedly referring to them as "my friends in the culinary services industry."
Anyway, I also wanted to flag the McCain site you found because it's actually the third installment in a series of "Candidate X is Y"-themed sites, the first two having been, in order, Barack Obama Is Your New Bicycle and Hillary Is Mom Jeans. Clicking through these sites, it's really remarkable how these sites have captured the general zeitgeist surrounding the respective candidacies. Obama is a neat, shiny toy or a breath of fresh air; Hillary, a series of vaguely-bumming, but ultimately survivable, inevitable events; and McCain, a one-stop-shop for all things myopic and not-of-this-era. It's a fairly remarkable form of participation in a campaign, and seems like the Version 2.0 of the various viral YouTubes that have been making their way around the Interwebs this campaign season, but much more subtle. It seems to signify a weird sort of coming-of-age for all us young whippersnappers whose political consciousness was forged in the era of Clinton and Bush -- i.e., an era when the mainstream media were so easily distracted by memes, the damned things, that they couldn't focus on facts when a shiny new sex scandal or a disastrous war were dangled before there eyes.
Now, we're seeing the response, as the Internet generation figures out that the most effective way to inject itself into the elaborate, unending pas de deux between press and politicians is not to shout facts in the hopes of drowning out memes, but to simply shout memes.
Or, I could be rambling here at midnight [uh, "midnight" was about half an hour ago. -- ed], but in any case, I think these sites are neat. And Barack Obama is my new bicycle.
Anyway, I also wanted to flag the McCain site you found because it's actually the third installment in a series of "Candidate X is Y"-themed sites, the first two having been, in order, Barack Obama Is Your New Bicycle and Hillary Is Mom Jeans. Clicking through these sites, it's really remarkable how these sites have captured the general zeitgeist surrounding the respective candidacies. Obama is a neat, shiny toy or a breath of fresh air; Hillary, a series of vaguely-bumming, but ultimately survivable, inevitable events; and McCain, a one-stop-shop for all things myopic and not-of-this-era. It's a fairly remarkable form of participation in a campaign, and seems like the Version 2.0 of the various viral YouTubes that have been making their way around the Interwebs this campaign season, but much more subtle. It seems to signify a weird sort of coming-of-age for all us young whippersnappers whose political consciousness was forged in the era of Clinton and Bush -- i.e., an era when the mainstream media were so easily distracted by memes, the damned things, that they couldn't focus on facts when a shiny new sex scandal or a disastrous war were dangled before there eyes.
Now, we're seeing the response, as the Internet generation figures out that the most effective way to inject itself into the elaborate, unending pas de deux between press and politicians is not to shout facts in the hopes of drowning out memes, but to simply shout memes.
Or, I could be rambling here at midnight [uh, "midnight" was about half an hour ago. -- ed], but in any case, I think these sites are neat. And Barack Obama is my new bicycle.
2 Comments:
I wasn't aware of the Hillary site, which seems by far the weakest of the three. I can't imagine Senator Clinton giving me pinkeye, for example.
I added...Hillary took the last slice of pizza.
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