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Former presidential candidate John McCain took some heat on the presidential campaign trail after admitting he was still “learning how to get online,” and was then lampooned after an aide claimed the BlackBerry is “the miracle John McCain helped create." But the Arizona senator, 72, is one of the Tweeple. Today he will participate in an interview via Twitter, the microblogging site favored of late by journos, politicos and other constant communicators.
McCain is set to dish with ABC News’ chief Washington correspondent George Stephanopoulos at noon in what the host of This Week is calling a “Twitterview” (and what his colleague Ned Potter suggests might better be dubbed a “Twinterview”). “We're going to attempt to conduct a full interview exclusively on Twitter—complete with the 140-character limit!” Stephanopoulos wrote.
There’s some precedent for Twitter interviews—or at least the occasional reporter''s question. For instance, Stephanopoulous tweeted Missouri Democratic Sen. Claire McCaskill last Wednesday to ask why she voted against President Obama’s $410-billion omnibus budget bill. Her response: "George S.:Ultimately just couldn't do it. Not just earmrks tho, also increase in spendng(8%too much)& failure to reconcile $ with stimuls."
Could Twitter prove to be McCain’s technological redemption? His aide Brooke Buchanan tells Potter that while she sometimes tweets for her boss—"He's the first to admit it: he types very slowly," she said—McCain "controls the content."
"He's the one who wanted to Twitter," Buchanan said, "and he's the one who updates it."
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