Yaicha

Thanks to my Mom for passing this along. As a big fan of the Mac vs PC commercials, I had to read the NYT article, “Is Obama a Mac and Clinton a PC?” In case you have been living under a rock and have not seen the Mac vs. PC commercials, here is one of my favorite ones (you can see them all on Apple’s website).

The article in the NYT features interviews with design professionals who have analyzed each candidate’s website.

On one thing, the experts seem to agree. The differences between hillaryclinton.com and barackobama.com can be summed up this way: Barack Obama is a Mac, and Hillary Clinton is a PC.

While this is an interesting exercise and amusing to read about, the meaty story that led the NYT to write about it came from a blogger, Doug Kendall, on The Huffington Post, in a piece titled, “Obama’s a Mac, Clinton’s a PC.” I found it to be more compelling reading, in fact.

But Democrats are still deeply divided. Having been in the political wilderness for much of the last 30 years, we are, understandably, a risk adverse bunch. We cling to Hillary like that old-reliable PC that we keep on our desks. We respond to her message: she’s tested, able to handle every dirty trick Republicans will throw at her, ready on day one.

Kendall then goes on to tease even more meaning out of his extended metaphor:

All true, but there’s also the darker side of the story. As the hipster in the Mac commercial loves to point out, a PC isn’t actually all that reliable: reboot, reboot. We all experienced the rollercoaster ride that was the eight years of Bill Clinton’s presidency: we should be confident in voting for Hillary only to expect the unexpected. And PC owners just try to forget about the whole “blue screen of death,” melted hard drive thing, just like Democrats put Monica, impeachment and disbarment as far from their minds as possible as they contemplate pulling another voting lever for a presidential candidate named Clinton.

More and more I like the analogy. Getting back to the NYT story, however, there was something I really liked learning from it:

Unlike the Republicans, the Democratic contenders have incorporated social-networking tools to their sites — allowing supporters to create their own groups, for example, though Mr. Obama is considered the pacesetter in that regard.

“Obama’s campaign gained attention here in the Bay area tech community early on when he launched the My.BarackObama.com portal that allowed for personal blogging from the public, messaging with other supporters, and a host of other tools,” Ms. Chang wrote in an e-mail message.

I set up my account at My.BarackObama.com and was quite impressed with all the friendly and well-designed features. It really is Mac-like. Check it out.

Oh, and “get a Mac” on election day!

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