Obama Vs. McCain As Mac Vs. PC

National Review Online: The Campaign Can Be Likened To The Popular Mac Commercials

(National Review Online)  This column was written by Jim Geraghty.

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It’s extremely unlikely that Barack Obama and his campaign will get in legal trouble for featuring a revised version of the presidential seal. But like Michael Dukakis riding in a tank or John Kerry declaring that he voted for war funding before he voted against it, we may have just witnessed one of those unexpected moments that, in retrospect, comes to define one of the candidate’s unflattering traits.

The decision to create the “Seal of Obomerica” seems like an almost deliberate response to Peggy Noonan’s column about the difference between “Old America” and “New America,” and how each party’s candidate embodies one of the two. When President Bush speaks, the Obama campaign doesn’t just want to change the rhetoric, the policies, and the man behind the lectern; apparently the seal seems a bit stodgy and old-fashioned for their tastes as well.

In November, we’ll be hard-pressed to find a voter who says they voted for John McCain because some Obama staffer thought it would be a good idea to redesign the presidential seal, just as no one is going to vote against Obama because some overzealous volunteer made two women in headscarves move further away so they would be outside camera angles. (Of course, a third example of this,” we need more white people! we need more white people!” will be a bigger story, because it will be a recurring pattern instead of one or two instances of bad judgment.)

But the fact that the someone on the campaign said some variation of, “Hey, let’s have Obama speak with his own redesigned version of the seal,” and that either no one objected or the objections were overruled - may become a symbol of hubris and disconnect on par with the candidate’s litany of what motivates “bitter” small town voters during a fundraiser on Billionaire’s Row in San Francisco earlier this year.

The Obama camp uses the word “change” more frequently than commas and perhaps in that constant repeating of the mantra they occasionally miss that a country yearning for change wants improvement, not change for the sake of change. What exactly was wrong with the presidential seal? The idea that a candidate and the people around him should deem it lacking, and that an upgrade would be an all-blue version that incorporates his campaign logo into the seal is… strange. The idea that no grownup was around to shake a head and say, ‘you don’t change the seal of the office you seek while on the campaign trail’ furrows the brow. Perhaps most perplexingly, why use the Latin “yes we can” as a replacement for “E Pluribus Unum” (Out of Many, One)? Wasn’t this campaign pledging to unite the country? Didn’t this guy wow the political world with a debut speech that called for “no red states or blue states, but red white and blue states?”

The old vs. new theme in this year’s matchup sometimes seems reminiscent of Apple Computer’s often hilarious “Mac vs. PC” ads. While funny and likable as far as television commercials go, they didn’t necessarily translate into higher sales at first. Slate’s ad analyst Seth Stevenson hit on the problem:
My problem with these ads begins with the casting. As the Mac character, Justin Long (who was in the forgettable movie Dodgeball and the forgettabler TV show Ed) is just the sort of unshaven, hoodie-wearing, hands-in-pockets hipster we've always imagined when picturing a Mac enthusiast. He's perfect. Too perfect. It's like Apple is parodying its own image while also cementing it. If the idea was to reach out to new types of consumers (the kind who aren't already evangelizing for Macs), they ought to have used a different type of actor.

Meanwhile, the PC is played by John Hodgman - contributer to the Daily Show and This American Life, host of an amusing lecture series, and all-around dry-wit extraordinaire. Even as he plays the chump in these Apple spots, his humor and likability are evident. (Look at that hilariously perfect pratfall he pulls off in the spot titled "Viruses.") The ads pose a seemingly obvious question - would you rather be the laid-back young dude or the portly old dweeb? - but I found myself consistently giving the "wrong" answer: I'd much sooner associate myself with Hodgman than with Long.

Obviously, we’re supposed to want to be the Mac guy, but I suspect a lot of consumers laugh because they relate to the PC - the world is changing too fast for him to keep up, he’s so far from cutting edge that by the time he tries something it’s obsolete, the cool crowd looks down on him, and some snot-nosed twenty-something who thinks he knows everything is ready to take his job. There’s something Charlie Brownish about the PC - he tries hard, but it never seems to work out quite right. Of course, Charlie Brown is one of the most popular characters in the world.

Clearly, the ads have worked for Apple; they’re in their third year. But note that Long’s Mac character has shifted from boasting and bragging (reading his own great reviews in the Wall Street Journal, bringing out a supermodel to symbolize his home movie), to constantly expressing sympathy for his befuddled friend/rival - albeit in an irrepressibly condescending manner. In a 2007 ad entitled “Counselor” that depicts a joint therapy session, Mac says, “I don’t know why you’re so hard on yourself. . . . You are a wizard with numbers, and you dress like a gentleman.” There is probably no clearer parallel to “You’re likable enough, Hillary Clinton,” in advertising.

McCain thankfully isn’t making comical pratfalls like Hodgman’s PC, but contrasted with Obama, he can’t help but be defined as the de facto “old reliable.” Obama is the Mac Guy: young, brimming with coolness - fist bumps, moves adopted from Jay-Z videos - beloved by the press and perpetually surrounded by technology-savvy fans.

As Kurt Andersen noted in New York magazine, it’s easy to conclude that the precisely diverse crowds behind Obama represent “the America.” But they actually leave out large swaths of an America that, if “old,” isn’t gone yet - and this isn’t even getting into the headscarves.

It’s not only that the people who create and run the media - and who love Obama - occupy the social and cultural upper rungs. The world depicted in “the media,” broadly construed - not just straight journalism but everything we watch and read and hear - is overwhelmingly a bright, shiny, upscale, youngish world. Uneducated white people, residents of the so-called C and D counties, and the elderly - in other words, Hillary Clinton voters - are seldom allowed into the mass-media foreground, and when they appear it’s usually as bathetic figures, victims or losers. (And working-class black pop culture is considered part of the sexy mainstream in a way that working-class white pop culture is not.)

The redesigned logo, the will.i.am video, the cover of men’s Vogue, his ability to be deemed one of the fittest men in America (despite the occasional cigarette), his Versace-dedicated line, the news that he regularly trades lengthy e-mails with Scarlett Johansson. . . . We get it, the guy is cooler than 99 percent of us will ever be. We will hear endless comparisons to John F. Kennedy, the last president who enjoyed the status of a style icon.

But it’s easy to imagine John Kennedy winning the 1960 election even if he hadn’t been cool. It’s hard to imagine him winning if he hadn’t gotten to the right of Nixon on national security. Having the coolest-looking seal in the world on your lectern can’t compensate for weaknesses of the man speaking behind it.

[missru1103]

If we don''t take a chance and think differently than we are in for the same old same old, the powers that be are leading us deeper into the MESS. Yes we are in trouble and we do need a change. I don''t think that the Kid is such a bad idea from where we stand now.

[blitzder]

MAC or PC?? Forget it Obama is a PC(computer literate, Harward Masters Degree) and McCain is the ABACUS.

Imagine in this day and age, a presidential candidate who is computer illiterate. There is no way he should become president, his inability to read the codes on the nuclear button disqualifies him.

[missru1103]

I support Obama, all of the comments about him not having the experience of the other canidates or past elected officals is at this point well POINTLESS! If you stop and look around you we have been lead to this point by leaders that supposedly did have experience and look where we are now,and how we are looked at by the rest of the world. Obama can''t do worse those that came before him. It is time for a change. I for one am tired of the rich getting richer and the rest of us serving them! OBAMA-CLINTON!! I''d buy that! CHANGE IN 08.

[wooleywews]

Bringing up the Civil War? Is this you, Rev. Wright?

McCain is computer and cell phone illiterate. Still using civil war technologies.

[joyous88]

The scum propagandist like the NRO are some of the

slime that has enabled the republicon party to

actually morph into the new NAZI party

McBushsame, just one more liar, cheater, thief

[sanfelz]

Another in-depth discussion of nothing by NRO. You dare not discuss policies, because McCain''s policies are just repackaged failed Bush policies.

[jrefo]

Obama would be in no more legal trouble over making a seal than these Republican senators. http://www.nrsc.org/membership/

This story is nothing but hot air stirred up by those that simply dislike Obama.

[roger_inkart]

In my lifetime no other president went in public smiling (smirking) and joking ALL THE TIME while our young were dying in some distant land.

Posted by galloglaigh at 12:05 PM : Jun 27, 2008

According to Laura Bush "no suffers more than their president and I do" when it comes to Iraq. He gave up golf (or said he did) for our troops!

Sure, thousand of lives have been lost, tens of thousands more shattered and destroyed, families have been devastated, children orphaned, limbs lost, soldiers driven to suicide because of crippling PTSD - but let''s keep in mind who is really the victim here!

[roger_inkart]

Yes, a poorly thought out seal should make us rush into the arms of the Republican candidate - who''s supported policies and actions of the Bush adminstration that have taken a prosperous nation and driven it into the ground.

The maggots at the NRO clearly show more loyalty to the GOP ''brand'' then to their nation. That''s sickening, sad - and traitorous.

[galloglaigh]

Actually, IDNNSG got it right. Obama''''s acceptance of public funds (and the restrictions that go with it) was contingent on McCain accepting public fun.
Posted by fake-id at 03:00 AM : Jun 27, 2008
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Speaking of "fun," aren''t the rethuglicans the ones saying they are having "fun" while this war is waging on and American servicemen and women are being killed on a daily basis?

Isn''t BUSH having the "time of his life" while people are dying in a useless war he started?

In my lifetime no other president went in public smiling (smirking) and joking ALL THE TIME while our young were dying in some distant land.

[joyous88]

McBushSame is just one more aristocratice wealthy richboy,

just exactly like GW Bush, they both attendted private boys schools, got easy college admission thru their wealthy families,

and when the wa in Vietnam came along, they could not get away with being draft dodgers for very long , so-

their wealth families got them into piolet school to avoid seeing any combat,

mcBush just got un-lucky and bush just ran away,

Hey! thats the same way they run our country!

[notopennshut]

The main reason we will elect Obama is because McSame is out of touch with everyday folks, regardless of how hard he tries. He and Cindy are living in a different era, living the lives of elites. They are in a totally different and priviledged class compared to us everyday folks, and have no scintilla of an idea how we are struggling and trying to get by everyday. Besides, he is past the age where he can lead productively. He needs to take time off so often even during these campaign days. Haven''t we have enough of that with GW, who has had more time off or on vacation, compared to any other president in history? We don''t need another McSame who would even require more time off. To top it off, McCain has often been so forgetful that I fear he will not even remember what his job really is, should he be elected. NO, we cannot afford McSame for another four years!

[joyous88]

the only flip flop here is the republicon party,

all swaift boat veterans for LIARS,

it is not a Mac VS a PC-

It''s Obama versus McBush

[skyk-2009]

I think the Mac PC debate is fitting in another way. PCs won''''t break the bank. Macs will put you in the poor house. Personally I use to have a thing for the Commodore Amiga. I got mine in 1990 it had 4096 colors, stereo sound, 512 kilobytes of memory and a Motorola 68000 CPU. It came with synthetic voice software and I use to program it to curse. I still love electronic music because of that thing. I miss my commodore 64 too.

Posted by cbscrash07 at 05:56 PM : Jun 26, 2008
+ report abuse

I think you have this wrong... have YOU looked at the National Debt right now after 8 years of McSame and the Republican''s. It''s hard to imagine how broke you folks want the nation but I''d say putting McSame''s Economic Plan in place, having to borrow ALL that additional money, would pretty much sink us.

[skyk-2009]

IDNNSG: That public funding flip flop is Obama''''s.

Posted by cbscrash07 at 05:57 PM : Jun 26, 2008
+ report abuse

Actually, if you read his ENTIRE response to the question he didn''t flip flop... McSame did that!!

[fake-id-2009]

IDNNSG: That public funding flip flop is Obama''''s.
Posted by cbscrash07 at 05:57 PM : Jun 26, 2008


Actually, IDNNSG got it right. Obama''s acceptance of public funds (and the restrictions that go with it) was contingent on McCain accepting public fun.

---WASHINGTON %u2014 The government''s top campaign finance regulator says John McCain can''t drop out of the primary election''s public financing system until he answers questions about a loan he obtained to kickstart his once faltering presidential campaign.
---Federal Election Commission Chairman David Mason, in a letter to McCain this week, said the all-but-certain Republican nominee needs to assure the commission that he did not use the promise of public money to help secure a $4 million line of credit he obtained in November.
---McCain''s lawyer, Trevor Potter, said Wednesday evening that McCain has withdrawn from the system and that the FEC can''t stop him. Potter, who was FEC chairman in 1994, said the campaign did not encumber the public funds in any way.

McCain did...and then didn''t.

[sparks224]

The NRO is RWN (Right Wing Noise)

[andylance1]

The Obama campaign is suffering from infantile schnanagins. Aren''t there any grownups around?

Redesigning the presidential seal looks more like a sophomore prank. Is this a serious run for the presidency or a children''s crusade?

[element51]

toughitout...How right you are! I don''t know why I continue to read the ***** that the NRO puts out. All it does is cause my blood pressure to rise. To take a non issue like this and try to blow it up to momumental porportions is insanity. These people will float any balloon that they think might cause some weak minded morons to come over to their side. Pathetic is just another word that they aren''t familiar with. Give me a break!!!!!!

[javalation]

Obama may be the Mac, but McCain isn''t a PC, he''s a typewriter or perhaps even a quill pen.