Monday, February 19, 2007

McCain casts aside an age-old tradition

I don't have strong feelings about John McCain or his candidacy for the Republican nomination. But I have to comment about his website.

McCain has long been trying to position himself as an unconventional Republican candidate, which is fair enough. So his team has designed a somewhat unconventional website, which you may or may not care for. (Personally, I don't see the point of campaign websites, however designed.)

What irks me is the description. Both the home page and the press release call the site "a departure from the traditional campaign website".

Traditional?

The web has been around for under fifteen years. The first campaign websites were probably online in 1996 at the earliest. Ten years of graphic design fashion - is that what passes for a tradition these days? And for a Republican presidential candidate, no less?

I'm not sure campaign websites have been all that similar to begin with, or, if they have, that McCain's is all that different from them. I might be willing to grant him "unconventional". But "a departure from the traditional campaign website"? Please.