Okay. This is a little bit complicated to explain. Also: boring. So here's the short version. This week, there was this conference called the Personal Democracy Forum, or PDF, and at the PDF there was a panel discussion - on internet stuff! - like Twitter and, uhm...PDFs. And junk.
Anyway, at this panel, Mark Soohoo, who is ostensibly part of John McCain's "internet team" was explaining to the assembled that despite the outward appearance that McCain hasn't learned how to use Google - and is thus still unaware that his campaign's BFF Charlie Black has this annoying hobby of repping for bloodthirsty dictators - the candidate has plenty of what we used to call "computer literacy." But then: DAG! Here comes blogger (and former John Edwards internet director) Tracy Russo, gettin' all up in Soohoo's grill, funnin' on McCain! That led Soohoo to utter these immortal words, "John McCain is aware of the internet." As it turns out, that dovetailed a little too closely with "I am aware of all Internet traditions" - another joke that Wonkette had recently catapulted into the online political conversation. And now, a perfect storm of meme is born.
[WATCH.]
So there you have it. McCain's internet guy got PWNED at a conference, yes, but it would be unfair for this incident to come to be known as the moment where people realized that McCain didn't know how to use a computer. That moment came last week, when John McCain yelled at Barack Obama for having a powerful social network of campaign donors who used the internet to create a new and innovative method of public campaign finance, while John McCain is stuck trying to raise money with a bundle of pointed sticks and some cave paint.
RELATED: The Five Internet Jokes That Will Make Obama Win [Gawker]