McCain gaming Digg, Obama Google bombing McCain
It must be an election year. Both sides of the fence are being accused of gaming the system and trying to influence the vote. I’m not sure why people are surprised at this – isn’t the whole point of an election to actually try to get elected?
We may not like how they go about it – the mudslinging, the accusations, the tricks and nonsense that goes on behind the scenes. In the end an election is a contest, and both sides are playing to win. We wouldn’t want anything less than a president who keeps his eyes on the prize, and if nothing else the latest shenanigans show that both camps have their focus set on the big picture.
McCain is being accused of the slightly worse offense in this case: gaming Digg. It isn’t like the Diggnation doesn’t already game the system a little every day, but to find out a presidential candidate’s supporters are doing it is a bit different. Honestly, I’m more galled that it is McCain’s camp doing it – this is the candidate that doesn’t even understand or participate in the internet or technological advances – that’s somehow insulting to geeks everywhere, that he has to have staff that handle it for him.
Obama’s supporters are no better. Recently Open Left has been accused of Googlebombing McCain. The accusation was a no-brainer, since they were dumb enough to leave instructions for the Googlebomb attack in plain view on their site. It kind of defeats the purpose of a good Googlebomb to be so blatant about it, now doesn’t it?
Each of the candidates appear to have no actual involvement in either attempt at gaming the system but neither has come out against the transparent efforts either. McCain’s silence I can understand. By the time someone explains all the terms to him and gets him to understand what was done on his behalf it will be 2052 and he’d be… well, dead, I suppose – he’s pretty old. Obama, though, is a horse of a different color. The most tech-savvy candidate, he should know better than to not speak out on this.
Can we look forward to more of the same shenanigans? I’m sure we can. It’s an election year, and it is time for dirty pool, after all, from both camps.
