Remember when you were in middle school, you just became acquainted with the internet and you discovered AIM? At first it was the coolest thing you had ever seen - imagine it! Being able to talk to people when they were far away, not having to press your ear against a rank phone earpiece, it was a miracle of technology. Sure, there were hiccups. Emo away messages came into vogue and littered the internet with Dashboard Confessional lyrics, bizarre buddy icons rotated in and out of our profiles, it was wonderful until everybody grew up and delegated their pseudonym of faaavrefann87 to the back row.
Aiding in the ongoing battle of adding quirky elements to news coverage that don't actually enhance anything, ABC's George Stephanopoulos stepped out into the brave new world of Twitter (a world populated by its indigenous people known as "Twits".) to interview Sen. John McCain in a glorified AIM conversation. I could have joined in with their little party by liveblogging their Twitter conversation (now wouldn't that have been post-modern!) but it's mid-term season, sometimes real life overtakes blogs.
So what were the first words spoken in this bold adventure?
"SenJohnMcCain hi george im a little slow" And with that, we're off...
"SenJohnMcCain@GStephanopoulos Happy St. Patrick's day - slow, sometimes pc somtimes bb" You'd think after the first time he spelled sometimes correctly he'd have the hang of it.
"SenJohnMcCain@GStephanopoulos i haven't seen it but i would explore every option. i repeat, we wouldn't have this problem if we hadn't bailed them out" McCain goes against Republican ideology here, undermining the individual by putting I in lowercase.
"GStephanopoulos@SenJohnMcCain Obama says GOP can't "just say no" on budget Will you offer a full alternative to Obama budget?" Periods are also unnecessary, provided you capitalize the starting letter of the sentence.
"GStephanopoulos@SenJohnMcCain What worries you more: Pakistan or Iran?
SenJohnMcCain@GStephanopoulos both. the challenges are different but both significant." Now this is just typical politician bollocks, but I can't help but sigh when McCain chooses both options when he's supposed to make a choice between the two. "Which flavor of ice cream do you prefer, chocolate or vanilla?
GStephanopoulos@SenJohnMcCain Which flavor of ice cream do you prefer, chocolate or vanilla?
SenJohnMcCain@GStephanopoulos Both. I prefer both at the same time. They both register the same amount of preference at all times.
Well, insert a stupid abbreviation here and a misspelling there, and it'd probably be a bit more realistic.
The verdict? Twitter continues to be dumb, McCain revealed nothing interesting and Stephanopolus didn't try to push further on any of his questions. Call me when Sean Hannity interviews McCain on Halo 3.