John McCain Hates Me

John McCain proves once again that he's aware of the internet: "Now we’ve got the cables. We’ve got talk radio. We’ve got the bloggers. I hate the bloggers. We’ve got all kinds of sources of information."

It seems that old people find this anti-blogger campaigning to be worthy of tepid laughter.

Comments

Those whipper-snappers! By golly--they need to stop filling up the--what does my grandson call it again?--the...google(?) with their propaganda.

Posted by David | July 6, 2008 10:56 AM

Oh, c'mon. He was making a joke. A funny. A ha-ha.

BUT OH MY GOD HE SAID "BLOGGERS". And not in a worshipful way. LET'S ALL BLOG ABOUT IT!!! It's "anti-blogger campaigning"!

By the way, this is from 12/29/2007. Hardly news.

Posted by Seth Finkelstein | July 6, 2008 11:05 AM

Given that it was during the primary, he was getting pounded on by bloggers from across the spectrum.

Posted by Consumatopia | July 6, 2008 11:12 AM

You're right, Seth. Matthew should never joke about McCain's jokes. They need to be taken Deadly Serious, and laughed at exactly as intended, with patriotic fervor.

Posted by Curly | July 6, 2008 12:23 PM

I hate the bloggers. We’ve got all kinds of sources of information.

Yes Mr. McCain, when citizens have access to information it is a horrible development.

Posted by tom.a | July 6, 2008 1:04 PM

Clearly, McCain's campaign theme song needs to be "Life During Wartime."

Posted by Eric Scharf | July 6, 2008 1:27 PM

This is just a snippet. I wonder what the context is.

Posted by Enric | July 6, 2008 1:33 PM

"the cables"?

Does he mean telegraph cables?

Posted by brenna | July 6, 2008 1:44 PM

I thought McCain said, "I hate the bloggers!" like a chocoholic says, "I hate the chocolate!" But, it's actually more like an arachnophobic says, "I hate the spiders!" Maybe.

Posted by bigboxcar | July 6, 2008 1:53 PM

Personally, I hate the cables more. They get into a tangled mess, trap dust bunnies and are a a tripping hazard to the elderly. At least the bloggers sit in a corner and use the internets.

Posted by PGS | July 6, 2008 2:29 PM

Of course he hates the bloggers. He's Republican, so naturally media = propaganda to him. Any media that the party can't control as an outlet for propaganda is bad.

Posted by LFC | July 6, 2008 3:06 PM

He doesn't know anything about the internet! He's probably just repeating what all his MSM buddies tell him all the time.

Also its an interesting new code word for elite nerds. So called red-staters don't have a problem with someone coming from an elite background (Dubya). They just don't care for people who come off like elite intellectuals. That's why George Sr. didn't get his second term.

Posted by BEN | July 6, 2008 3:31 PM

"We’ve got all kinds of sources of information."

So why is McCain wrong about just about everything?

Even Matt gets things right once in a blue moon. Must be a benefit of being a blogger instead of an old fart politician.

Posted by Richard Steven Hack | July 6, 2008 5:48 PM

What about the tubes that make up the internets?

Posted by Dave | July 6, 2008 5:49 PM

The tubes got cables in 'em, Dave. They're fulla the bits and bytes.

Posted by SqueakyRat | July 6, 2008 5:55 PM

Any question as to where this joker would stand on the issue of Net Neutrality?

Anyone else get a mental image of an old Presidential candidate rasping, "We hates them!" and biting off a blogger's finger?

Posted by MiniMage | July 6, 2008 7:36 PM

One can only wonder, if he hates bloggers, why does he have a blog? One can also wonder, does he hate his supporters with blogs?

Posted by Brian | July 6, 2008 10:29 PM

I'm certainly no McCain fan, but I thought this was an example of one of the things that makes him a dangerous opponent; his comic delivery and sense of timing is actually pretty good--at least for the audience he was talking to. His problem is that these strengths only seem to surface when he's unscripted, and going off-script is just too dangerous for someone with his high temper and loose grasp of the issues.

When he stays on script, we get the "green screen" speech. When he speaks extemporaneously, he is much looser, but he ends up with moments like the "Bomb Iran" quote; while reprehensible as a response to a foreign policy question, that was not bad as a piece of comedy. But you can't give a political speech like it's a 5-minute monologue at the improv--not in the youtube age.

Posted by FearItself | July 6, 2008 11:06 PM

I thought it was funny. At least he has a sense of humor.

Posted by Elgin | July 7, 2008 2:45 AM

Damn kids, with their pinball machines and their pac-man video games.

Posted by bill | July 8, 2008 6:53 AM