Stephanopoulos/McCain: THE TWITTERVIEW
03/17/09 01:26 PM
By ED BARK
It was only last year that presidential candidate John McCain copped to being a computer "illiterate" who used neither a MAC or a PC.
Now he's twittering with ABC News This Week anchor George Stephanopoulos, who's embraced this new form as if he were a one-year-old in a high chair with his first birthday cake set before him.
Twitter is the "micro-blogging" web site that allows its users a max of 140 characters to say something. At the network news level, few if any have used it more visibly than Stephanopoulos, who on Tuesday made much ado of his "Twitterview" with McCain.
"Happy St. Patrick's Day!" Stephanopoulos began. "First things first: How do u tweet -- dictate or type? Blackberry or pc?"
To which McCain tweeted, "george I'm a little slow. both, usually pc sometimes bb. Happy St. Patrick's Day."
Yes, it's come to this.
Stephanopoulos also asked McCain about the AIG bailout, bonus contracts and Iran/Pakistan. To which the Republican senator from Arizona offered little in response because much less is expected or allowed when you're tweeting.
Sample exchange:
GS: What worries you more: Pakistan or Iran?
JMcC: both. the challenges are different but both significant.
Stephanopoulos ended by tweeting, "Lots of twitterers want to know: what do you think of Meghan's feud with Coulter and Ingraham?"
Tweeted McCain: "I'm proud of my daughter and she has a right to her opinions. like any family we agree on some things and disagree on others."
(Note: here are more particulars on that raging "controversy.")
Stephanopoulos tweeted off by thanking McCain for being a "good sport."
McCain offered to "do it again soon. Now I look forward to reading our followers comments and insults." (Note: McCain omitted the apostrophe after followers. Gotta conserve space.)
None of this was terribly reminiscent of the dialogues of Socrates and Plato. But it did manage to almost replicate the depth of a Beavis and Butt-head exchange.
Never mind, though. Twitter remains the dot.com flavor of the month, and perhaps of the year. And George Stephanopoulos is eating it up as though he were his old boss, Bill Clinton, at a McDonald's counter.