McCain No Longer Web-Illiterate
'Obama Love’ Web ad viewed more than 259,000 times on John McCain’s YouTube channel.
By Marisa Guthrie -- Broadcasting & Cable, 7/27/2008 4:00:00 AM
Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) may have been late to the World Wide Web personally, but his campaign is showing that it’s no stranger to the Internet as a political tool.
The presumptive Republican nominee does not use e-mail and has admitted to being computer “illiterate,” telling The New York Times: “I am learning to get online myself, and I will have that down fairly soon.”
But his Web ad, “Obama Love,” released last week, looks like a veteran move.
The ad features a montage of clips from the television media in expressions of rapture over his opponent, Sen. Barack Obama (D-Ill.), while Frankie Valli’s “I Can’t Take My Eyes Off You” plays. MSNBC’s Chris Matthews makes repeated appearances. And his now infamous “thrill going up my leg” is co-opted as the ad’s tag line.
NBC News president Steve Capus called the ad “a lovely piece of satire.”
At press time, Obama Love had been viewed more than 259,000 times on John McCain’s YouTube channel.
“Republicans have done extraordinarily well over the years attacking the media,” said Evan Tracey, chief operating officer of the campaign-media-analysis group at TNS Media Intelligence.
Sen. Hillary Clinton (D-N.Y.) also made much hay over what she (and Saturday Night Live) considered an obvious tonal disparity between her coverage and Obama’s. But not so long ago, McCain, who cultivated a maverick persona, was the media darling. His open-ended powwows with reporters on the Straight Talk Express were the envy of other embeds covering less scintillating candidates. The press, he said, was “his base.”
“There are probably a lot of Republicans who don’t line up all that well with John McCain,” Tracey said. “They may not agree on global warming or drilling in [the Arctic National Wildlife Reserve], but they can all find common ground in this notion that there’s this gigantic liberal media conspiracy.”
It remains to be seen if the Web -- an extremely effective fund-raising tool, especially for Obama -- can also become a mobilizing force.
“Are Republicans behind Democrats in what they do online? The answer is an unequivocal yes, in my opinion,” Tracey said. “But does what Democrats do on the Web translate into votes in November? The jury’s still out on that.”
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Please, Senator McCain, I am working for you in my county, small scale sure but I want you to stop reacting to Obama. Your ideas are sound, so make them clear. Also, have yu noticed? No one is talking to the seniors who struggle just like he rest of the country.
watching our savings fall fallen souffle knowing our fees in h retirement community are going to go up and up.
Social security and medicare are in trouble.
Our county has 26 retirement communities and many seniors living independently besides. Come heere qand let us know what you plan to do about medicare, the pharmeceuticla companies using Medicare D as a cash cow. No body is payingany attention, yet we vote in higher percentages than other groups.
Nancy O'Hara - 7/27/2008 7:53:00 PM EDT -
His campaign is no longer web illiterate, you must mean.
John McCain couldn't post a YouTube video if his life depended on it.
Too newfangled for him.
And the ad itself is abhorrent, even according to McCain's pal Chuck Hagel, he said so on Face the Nation this AM.
And 259,000 viewings of the ad is nothing. The latest Flo Rida clip is in the 17 million area.
Joe Bua - 7/27/2008 6:40:00 PM EDT
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