Democratic Party Presidential Nominee Barack Obama has an iPod, and he’s not afraid to tell you what’s on it—nor were George Bush, Laura Bush, Hillary Clinton, U.K. Prime Minister Gordon Brown, or other iPod-loving politicians. But how about Republican Party Nominee John McCain? He hasn’t been quite as enthusiastic. Since iLounge’s editors include some Republicans and some Democrats, we were curious enough to contact Mr. McCain’s campaign with a couple of simple questions: does he have an iPod or iPhone? If so, what’s in his personal playlists? Thus far, there’s been no answer.
According to CNN today, Mr. McCain is a self-described computer “illiterate,” and iLounge reader comments seem to assume the worst about how out of touch he must be because of his age: a couple of readers suggested that he needed to “reveal the contents of his 78 rpm record collection,” and that “he wishes Hollywood would stop making talkies and go back to silents.” But as CNN’s video shows, age isn’t the issue; it’s the desire to be in touch with technology. Some long-serving politicians—and even grandmotherly Queen Elizabeth—have apparently asked for iPod assistance from more tech-savvy family members, and the CNN interview shows that the Republican Nominee leans on his Blackberry-toting wife for computer support, so it wouldn’t be impossible for the man to have and use an iPod even if computers are too challenging.
There seems to be some evidence that he does. One report placed him on a campaign bus in South Carolina telling reporters that he has an iPod with ABBA on it, while a separate Time Magazine report suggests that he unsuccessfully tried to get a voice-commanded Ford iPod system to play ABBA tracks. Perhaps it’s not a distaste for computers or a lack of an iPod, after all—maybe he’s said as much as needs to be said on the topic of his musical preferences.
