Underestimating the Politics of Personality and Technology in Ad Attacks

John McCain is visibly miffed that his campaign's attempts to cast Barack Obama as an empty celebrity on par with the Britney Spears and Paris Hilton's of the world has failed to slow the Obama march much, if at all. McCain seems to simultaneously covet and disdain that tricky quality that Obama seems to have in spades, popularity. But by invoking the images of the celebrity obsessed culture to suggest that Obama is merely an empty and vapid celeb du jour, while failing to demonstrate that he understands and embraces the technology that drives our economy and culture, McCain reveals a critical flaw in his policy and public relations strategy, as well as his grasp of the cultural zeitgeist.

In a culture where people are just as likely to get their news from The Daily Show with Jon Stewart as they are from The New York Times, celebrity and the cult of personality are part and parcel of how America vets its prominent figures. Hard news dwells right next to reports about the "Brangelina twins" on countless online news, cultural and political commentary sites such as The Huffington Post. McCain himself has appeared several times over the years on The Daily Show, and was effective in crafting a maverick image that at once cast himself as a serious politician, but one who also grasped the absurdity of the Washington scene, and was aware of its intrinsic entertainment quality. Now, as the presumptive Republican nominee, McCain has increasingly lost that straight-talking, rebellious image, and has gradually morphed into the type of figure that has caused many to cast a jaundiced eye at the Republican Party in the past: a stuffy, negative, out of the loop, old white guy. And, add to that, damning in the view of today's culture, his comments have revealed that he might just be something of a technophobe.

It is this "out of the technology loop," perhaps even willingly, element that reveals some real fissures in the prospect of a McCain presidency. You can be a bit fussy and not the best looking guy in the room, as Al Gore has proved, if your cultural barometer is able to help you grasp the pulse of American concerns, and how they like to talk about it, i.e. through their technology devices and in their entertainment venues. John McCain's interview with The New York Times in early July reveals what a dangerous oversight it is to reveal how out of touch you are with how your constituency communicates, does business and plays, or all three, in the 21^st century. While the interview covered a lot of important substantive ground, it was mostly lost. The most ubiquitous headline to come out of the interview was how out of touch he was with technology and the Internet, and more flabbergasting in the eyes of the commentators; he didn't even seem chagrined about it.

This telling political gaffe also tends to illustrate how McCain himself is out of touch with the direction of the American culture. The Pew Research Center published their findings in May of 2007 as part of their Pew Internet & American Life Project in which they conducted a survey to gauge which segments of society "make robust use of information technology." In their "contour of communication" findings, McCain's recent statements seem to categorize him as a "Lackluster Veteran," or those that find little use for modern technology and resent their intrusiveness, as well as an "Indifferent" user, or one who has access to a lot of technology devices but does not incorporate them into their daily lives. While he is not alone in the electorate, it lends some credence to those that question his credentials to lead our country forward. And, considering his counterpoint opponent, is it any wonder that McCain has only 200,000 friends on Facebook to Obama's one million?

The McCain campaign since then has taken the stance of declaring it a non-story, and has tried to make it a point to illustrate how their candidate is trying to get up to speed on the information highway, but they have as of yet not really illustrated that they get what all the fuss was about. While Obama has taken a strong stance on technology, and laid out his policy objectives, the McCain camp has yet to effectively respond, and interestingly his technology policy team is headed by Michael Powell, who was head of the FCC at the time of Janet Jackson's infamous "wardrobe malfunction," and led the charge for leveling stiff penalties against the network who aired the momentary flash of breast, which is now generally considered to be a massive over-reaction, and the fine has been recently thrown out. If critics have attempted to cast Obama as an elitist in an ivory tower who is out of touch with the realities for the common working American, Powell is also vulnerable to the same attacks based on his statements in the past, and his view of technology issues as marginal in the presidents policy agenda. His position in the campaign, in view of this, is troubling for what it says about how a McCain administration would approach technology, and whether or not it would be in step with, and truly representative of, the electorate.

It's true, popularity alone doesn't win elections. Ask Al Gore about that one to. And, you can have as many friends on Facebook as the other mega-watt celebrities, but will they tear themselves away from their i-phones long enough to get into the voting booth where it counts? That remains to be seen. But, it is foolhardy of McCain to fail to grasp the importance of understanding the impact of technology on all facets of doing business, both commercially and politically, in the 21^st century, and crafting a substantive approach. So to, he should not underestimate the power of popularity, as his once appealing personality is getting mucked up in counterproductive negative ads that entirely miss the point.