I have a new friend. His name is John McCain. I met him on MySpace!
Now I know what you're thinking: "What? John McCain has a MySpace page? Isn't MySpace a place for giddy teens accumulating thousands of friends they'll never meet, hopeful bands promoting their next concert at a small, dark bar near you, and TV shows who want you to think their characters are real with their own MySpace pages?"
All of this is true. However, MySpace is also a hangout for a new group of eager friend-seekers: presidential candidates.
Okay...so that makes sense for maybe, Barack Obama, right? The Romney boys? But John McCain? He's seventy-one - his demographic isn't going to seek him out on MySpace, are they? John McCain seems to think so. When you sign up for his campaign online, you're asked to either donate money or start a MySpace webpage. Is this a good strategy for John McCain?
Absolutely! In October, 2006, comScore released a report showing that people 35 and over make up 51.6% of MySpace users. So the typical MySpace page owner can not only vote for McCain, he/she can run against him. Watch out, Senator!
(This isn't a worry for the first friend I saw listed on the McCain page--the person known as "Team Teen for McCain," is described as, "male, age fifteen," so alas, he will not be able to cast a vote. He also seems to be a little bit shaky about the meaning of the word "team," so perhaps this is for the best.)
It being only a few day's after Mr. McCain's birthday, many of the comments listed on his MySpace page are well-wishes for the happy day. Several people tell the Senator to rock on. Others declare, "You rock, Senator!" I think we're all in agreement here.
The photos that go along with the comments and the group of friends on the front page show a cheerful group. They are mostly white and generally appear to be in their 20s-30s (comScore was right, it seems). It looks like the grop is skewing slightly male. This might be a good place to find a McCain-di-date.
The page also has lots of videos (many of which also are available on McCain's candidate website and YouTube channel, a blog with the latest post written by his campaign manager alerting us to his latest video (all the candidates seem very anxious that we know about their videos, many of which are, I believe, what used to be known as, "ads."). The personal details section lists "Arizona" as Mr. McCain's hometown, apparently an effort to avoid playing favorites with any particular town in his state. His favorite movie is the 1952 Brando-Kazan collaboration, Viva Zapata!, and his favorite TV show is 24. (Hmmm. At this point I become suspicious--the senator couldn't possibly have written this himself. I mean, no one could have watched the last season of 24 and still list it as a favorite. They ran out of ideas around hour twelve. This was probably written by someone who hadn't watched TV in about three years and just couldn't name any other shows. Mr. McCain has got to have better taste. After all--he rocks.).
Anyway, I'm glad to see that the senator has so many friends--39,744, at last count. As for me, I'm hoping to make some more friends. Friends with names like Joe and Rudy, Hillary and Mitt, and Barack and Fred, and look, there's another John! And Mike and Mike and Sam, and Bill and Ron, and--is that Duncan? Okay, Duncan, and don't forget Dennis! They're all here on MySpace and they all want to be MyFriend. Oh, and MyPresident. Hail to MyChief indeed.