John’s Choice

Cidu Bill on Aug 29th 2008

Mike Kruger: I understand this comic just fine. I just wonder if John McCain read it before he decided on the beauty queen running mate?

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Well one thing’s clear: He certainly didn’t read the comic online -Bill

Filed in Bill Bickel, Clear Blue Water, John McCain, Sarah Palin, comic strips, comics, humor, politics | 26 responses so far

26 Responses to “John’s Choice”

  1. solarrhino Aug 30th 2008 at 12:23 am 1

    Welcome to Comments I Don’t Understand. What does this comic have to do with Gov. Palin? Did she appear in nude photos or “Girls Gone Wild”? She could have, I have no idea, but I did read her biography (on Wikipedia and later in various articles), and saw nothing about anything like that. If anything, she seems like a woman who has lived by very traditional values.

    Also, why couldn’t Mccain read the comic online? Is he famously computer-phobic? blind? I really don’t get it.

  2. Cidu Bill Aug 30th 2008 at 12:31 am 2

    McCain recently mentioned that he has no idea how to work the Internets or send or retrieve e-mail. Unfortunately, this only reinforces the whole “too old and out of touch” charge.

    I actually have no idea what Mike’s referring to, though.

  3. Sari Everna Aug 30th 2008 at 12:43 am 3

    McCain wouldn’t read the comic online because he’s old, and people at that age are notoriously computer-illiterate. Obviously not all of them are like that, but I don’t think anything I’ve heard about him has done anything to make me think he’d be any more computer-literate than my grandma was, which is to say he knows it’s there, he has a basic understanding of how to use it, but doesn’t really bother using it much because there’s other stuff he understands better and finds easier to use.

    And I believe the idea is not that Palin is some nude photo type of person, but that she’s a woman. We’re making the connection of “males like women who look good”, not “males like women who get naked”. Not that that’s necessarily the main reason for McCain’s choice, but it would be funny if it was.

  4. Cidu Bill Aug 30th 2008 at 12:48 am 4

    Sari, my mother’s older than John McCain, and she’s online every day (and so are most of her friends). Likewise, in fact, my aunt who’s in her mid-80s.

  5. Sari Everna Aug 30th 2008 at 12:50 am 5

    Did he actually use the phrase “the internets”? Because that would make it even worse/better-for-laughing-at.

    And I’m pretty sure that’s part of why Palin was chosen- she’s younger, so it makes voting for him seem a bit less like voting for a dinosaur. She lowers the age and out-of-touch factors a bit. Also ups the attractiveness values.

  6. Cidu Bill Aug 30th 2008 at 12:56 am 6

    Nah, he didn’t say “the Internets” as far as I know — but it amuses me to think he did; and as I mentioned the other day, I learned from George W that it’s okay to believe the truths we choose to be true even when they conflict with facts or science.

    Personally, I think Palin was a brilliant choice, if only for the possibility of grabbing some of the Hillary supporters who feel so much bitterness against Obama’s for his “betrayal” (???) that they refuse to vote for him. In any case she’s a more interesting choice than Joe Biden, who my son calls Generic Democratic Candidate

  7. Sari Everna Aug 30th 2008 at 01:02 am 7

    That your mom is much more internet-savvy than the stereotype for the age group. McCain, though, pretty much fits it as if it was tailored for him. I’m not saying that they’re all horrible with computers, but old people having trouble with new stuff is one of the oldest stereotypes there is.

    And there is some reason for the stereotype to exist, blah, blah, blah, and, long story short, McCain is old and such. The end.

    You’ve gotten another comment in while I was writing, didn’t you?

  8. Cidu Bill Aug 30th 2008 at 01:12 am 8

    I think, Sari, that the stereotype might have been more true ten years ago. Today, the Internet is a lot more oldfolk-friendly than it used to be (and of course some of the old folk online today have been online since they were not-so-oldfolk).

    Around the time McCain outed himself as a Luddite, either Time or Newsweek mentioned that among affluent, white men McCain’s age, about 75% use the Internet regularly. Even given the fact that 53% of all statistics are pulled out of thin air, it’s probably safe to assume there’s SOME truth to it.

  9. Sari Everna Aug 30th 2008 at 01:17 am 9

    Then I’m going to pretend he said “the internets” as well. If we keep repeating it for long enough, it’ll be true!

    And that is the other bit of reasoning behind choosing her. Of course, I think it’s incredibly childish not to vote for the party you support just because they didn’t choose your candidate. So you’re going to vote for the guy who may have completely opposing views on very important things instead? Seriously?

    I also find it strange that both pairs are one older white guy and one younger, different person. The similarity is interesting.

  10. Sari Everna Aug 30th 2008 at 01:29 am 10

    McCain picked the wrong time to mention his internet difficulties, then, didn’t he?

    And I didn’t really feel like going through everything I could write about stereotypes because I really don’t want to think that much, so I just skipped to the important part about McCain being old.

  11. solarrhino Aug 30th 2008 at 01:31 am 11

    Okay, thanks all for the clarifications re McCain. As for Palin, yeah she’s pretty… but wasn’t Clinton considered sexy? John Kennedy? I’m trying to think of an attractive Veep candidate, but drawing a blank… Gore? No way. Oh, wait! John Edwards!

    Anyway, the comic was about actions and judgment, not looks, so I still don’t understand MK’s comment. Palin may turn out to be exactly as he implies - and, if so, we will all hear about it - but until we do, the comment seems like a wildly misplaced cheap shot.

  12. Andrew Aug 30th 2008 at 07:48 am 12

    According to Wikipedia, Governor Palin is literally a beauty queen, having Won the Miss Wallasia Pageant and come second in Miss Alaska. Maybe the implication is that in the quaint and innocent times of 1984 beauty pageants were the equivalent of todays internet sex videos and girls gone wild tapes - or that “wow, she’s hot” is the most likely factor to inform voters’ decisions.

  13. Seismic-2 Aug 30th 2008 at 08:16 am 13

    I believe George W Bush once commented about “the Internets”. Given his habit of creating his own personal syntax for the English language, this would hardly be surprising.

  14. Lola Aug 30th 2008 at 08:37 am 14

    I’ve heard it more than once. McCain refers to it in the plural and so do a lot of other Republicans. They ARE trying to make it tiered, so these could be freudian slips or maybe they are just trying to get us used to the electric collar (oops, I meant to say concept).

  15. Trish Aug 30th 2008 at 09:55 am 15

    I think he chose her as his “Lady Diana”. He is an old fogey who needed someone fresh, young and “virginal”. She may not be a virgin in the literal sense, but she is young enough to not have so many skeletons in her closet.

  16. Cindi Aug 30th 2008 at 10:20 am 16

    Last night, a friend and I had a conversation very close to the one in the comic. The gist of it being that in the very near future it will be impossible to find candidates who have never indulged in drugs, drank too much, had casual sex etc.
    Anyone born after 1960 and grew up in the very “wild” times of the 60’s, 70′a 80’s is likely to be touched by that. Now with the internet, cell phone pics/vids the chance to escape detection is even less likely then before - deny all you want the evidence is there for all to see - for all time.
    As a result of all this the standards we set for candidates will have to change because the moral standards of the times have changed. Youthful indiscretions have changes from cow-tipping and drinking beer under-age to Girls-gone-wild and recreational drug use. In due time any indiscretion short of murder ( I hope ) will be as not “too bad”.

    **
    just a sign of the ever-changing times

  17. Powers Aug 30th 2008 at 11:37 am 17

    Cindi, I was born long after 1960 and have no such indiscretions in my biography.

  18. Paul Aug 30th 2008 at 11:39 am 18

    “Personally, I think Palin was a brilliant choice, if only for the possibility of grabbing some of the Hillary supporters who feel so much bitterness against Obama’s for his “betrayal” (???) that they refuse to vote for him.”

    How many of them are left? 5? 10? If he thinks this will win over a significant amount of Hillary fans, he’s nuts.

  19. eeyore19 Aug 30th 2008 at 12:53 pm 19

    I know someone who thinks Governor Palin is hot because she reminds him of Tina Fey and Ashleigh Banfield.

  20. Cindi Aug 30th 2008 at 01:51 pm 20

    Powers-
    I was saying that here wouldn’t be people without “stuff” in their past - I wasn’t very clear on that point - sorry.
    I meant that the people who would seek public office would be more likely to have stuff in their past that was less then pristine. I guess it takes a certain type of person to desire to take on such pursuits as politics - I don’t have much stuff in my past but I still would not want to be put under the hot lights of public scrutiny.

    Perhaps we would be better off if politics drew people who gave more thought to the consequences of their actions.

  21. Cidu Bill Aug 30th 2008 at 02:02 pm 21

    Remember also that standards change: Time was, a divorce in the past would pretty much bar you from winning higher office. And two decades past it made a difference to people whether a candidate ever “inhaled” marijuana, whereas this year’s odds-on favorite wrote in his own book that he used to take drugs.

  22. David Aug 30th 2008 at 09:52 pm 22

    Well, the other Alaska-internets connection is that it was legendary Alaska senator Ted Stevens who made the infamous “series of tubes” speech.

  23. Mark in Boston Aug 30th 2008 at 10:17 pm 23

    Remember when George H.W. Bush saw a supermarket scanner for the first time? Talk about out-of-touch. It was like, what country was he president of, Inner Isolatonia or something?

  24. Charles Aug 30th 2008 at 10:31 pm 24

    The answer to Mike’s question is “no”. It’s nothing to do with the campaign, everything to do with the fact that everything is available on line, according to popular belief.

    By the way, I believe that our illustrious president was the first to refer to “internets”, plural, in a 2004 campaign debate. It has since entered the popular culture. I think that Colbert uses it often. My son has adopted it, along with the portmanteau “intertubes”.

  25. Blinky the Wonder Wombat Aug 30th 2008 at 10:37 pm 25

    Mark in Boston:

    Can’t say I do remember when G.W.H. Bush saw a supermarket scanner for the first time, as the story is an urban legend:

    http://www.snopes.com/history/american/bushscan.asp

  26. Lord Jubjub Sep 2nd 2008 at 08:23 pm 26

    Intertubes comes to us courtesy of Senator Stevens of Alaska.

    Powers, you kind of walked into the punchline of the comic. Of course, there will be the upright and spotless candidates. They will lose to those who have shown skin in their past.

    Palin has admitted to smoking (AND inhaling) marijuana.

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