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March 28, 2007

Ok, Maybe McCain Should Go Back To The Old Template

Michael Arrington

33 comments »

This morning we mentioned that Presidential hopeful John McCain’s MySpace page was “enhanced” with a new pro-gay marriage political message. That was quickly taken down, and the site repaired after about 13 hours. The new site, though, has a bad misspelling - “Gorup” should be “Group.”

The first time around this could be laughed off as a simple mistake, although it highlighted McCain’s flip-flopping positions on gay marriage. But now some people are going to question whether the guy can hire competent people to surround him. The original story will hit mainstream press this morning. Lots of people will be going to McCain’s MySpace page. And they’ll see a sloppy site. More on Newsvine.

  • Sphere It

This entry was posted on Wednesday, March 28th, 2007 at 12:25 am and is filed under Company & Product Profiles. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.

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  1. Kewtr

    March 28th, 2007 at 12:28 am

    That guy is so sweating his job, and I guarantee McCain’s a real grouch. I know the feeling, scrambling fix a real screw-up and making another mess, it sucks.

  2. Todd

    March 28th, 2007 at 1:13 am

    Man, what happened to TechCrunch? A great site gone astray.

  3. baron

    March 28th, 2007 at 2:22 am

    Maybe he means “ADD TO GOP”? *shrugs*

  4. Mario

    March 28th, 2007 at 3:39 am

    The sheer unspeakable horror of it!!

  5. Richard Corsale

    March 28th, 2007 at 5:14 am

    baron: kudos my man :)

  6. Taz

    March 28th, 2007 at 5:18 am

    So, if I find a spelling mistake on your site, does that mean you’re incompetent too?

  7. Scott Yates

    March 28th, 2007 at 5:27 am

    He should blame Al Gore for inventing the internet in the first place.

    Really, watching a 70-year-old guy try to do a MySpace page is like watching politicians do the Macarena. It’s just too horrible to watch, but you can’t take your eyes away.

    If I was a 23-year-old, I think I’d respect McCain more for NOT doing a MySpace page, and it’s certainly not as if I’d not vote for him based on anything to do with MySpace.

    There’s nothing improper about the Grandfather of the bride taking a pass on the Chicken Dance.

  8. Anthony Feint

    March 28th, 2007 at 5:36 am

    Who the hell cares about a spelling mistake on a MySpace page. That sure is going to change the world. Isnt this a blog about net startups?

  9. grey

    March 28th, 2007 at 5:53 am

    Arrington said:
    But now some people are going to question whether the guy can hire competent people to surround him.

    Um who is some people? You think any Republican primary voters or general election voters are going to judge McCain abilty to pick competent people based on his myspace page being hacked and then group not being spelled correctly??

    …and not to get personal but (to get personal) didn’t Arrington vote for Bush, who is clearly not a president who surrounded himself with competent technocrats.

  10. chris

    March 28th, 2007 at 6:26 am

    great catch!

  11. rack pallet

    March 28th, 2007 at 6:47 am

    - Having a myspace page - is worthless when compared to Barock’s whole social networking site;

    - Also - if your going to take a template, take one that you have permissin and don’t hot link -

    If your going to take one; make it a nice one. I personally think all templates on myspace sucks / basically myspace sucks.

  12. Tim Marman

    March 28th, 2007 at 6:58 am

    Scott, my thoughts exactly.

    “Really, watching a 70-year-old guy try to do a MySpace page is like watching politicians do the Macarena. It’s just too horrible to watch, but you can’t take your eyes away.

    If I was a 23-year-old, I think I’d respect McCain more for NOT doing a MySpace page, and it’s certainly not as if I’d not vote for him based on anything to do with MySpace.”

    It’s funny seeing politicos doing things to make it look like they get it, when often it serves the opposite purpose.

    And as for Bush, well, at least prior to his first term, you could certainly make the argument that, while he might not have been the brightest or most experienced, he surrounded himself with a top-notch team. (That second term was inexcusable though!).

  13. manfmnantucket

    March 28th, 2007 at 7:21 am

    oh, come on, how is this related to web 2.0 companies?

    IF you really want to see web 2 technology being adopted by government
    (and mega debates over gay marriage!) check out Mass governor
    Deval Patrick’s site:

    http://devalpatrick.com/issues.php

    It’s pretty good. tagging, digging, and everything, all scoped down to prioritize, engage, and address
    state-wide issues.

  14. jason

    March 28th, 2007 at 7:45 am

    omg! a typo on a myspace page. alert the world!

    i think your classification of “gorup” being a “bad misspelling” is sensationalizing this just a bit don’t you think mike? it’s a typo. people make mistakes your holiness.

  15. gilltots

    March 28th, 2007 at 7:45 am

    “But now some people are going to question whether the guy can hire competent people to surround him.”

    why would he sweat it? on the campaign trail he’s going to be literally ENGULFED in incompetent people (his Republican base) tee hee hee

    p.s. mccain’s myspace profile is kinda, eh, not that exciting. BREAKING NEWS - GRAPHIC CHANGED ON WEBPAGE!

  16. Dan

    March 28th, 2007 at 7:59 am

    His grandchild is probably doing this for him. :)

    And for those who think spelling on websites doesn’t matter….wow…

    I’eve got smoe news for yuo—it deos.

  17. Andrew Mager

    March 28th, 2007 at 8:37 am

    If anybody can screw it up more than George W, it’s Mr. McCain.

    This is hilarious Michael.

  18. Tom Maddox

    March 28th, 2007 at 8:54 am

    Folks,

    I’ve noticed a fair number of formal errors in TechCrunch, but for an example I didn’t have to search for one; I only had to look at the article beneath the McCain piece, where I find:

    FlipTrack Get’s $1.5 M for Synching Slide Shows

    Fairly obviously, if you’re going to criticize someone else’s conventional errors, you might want to pay more attention to your own.

  19. pr0xy k1ll3r

    March 28th, 2007 at 8:58 am

    A 13yr old on McCains MySpace

    dude u spelt grps wr0ng!!!!
    lmao! rotfl!!
    YOU n00b!!! I’m so NOT voting for you!

    (Arrington, if you or any of your editors ever make a spelling mistake, will that mean you are incompetent as well and that you are surrounded by incompetent people too?)

    Serious Voters will not be put off by this, they will be more interested in what his manifesto is rather than what spelling mistakes are present on his MySpace page, which ofcourse will predominately be seen my the 13ry old kid(s) I mentioned above.

  20. pr0xy k1ll3r

    March 28th, 2007 at 8:59 am

    by*

  21. Andy

    March 28th, 2007 at 11:23 am

    worst blog post ever.

  22. Mike D.

    March 28th, 2007 at 11:35 am

    Wow, when did the crowd here get so ornery? I would probably turn off comments on my blog if I got people telling me about what I should and shouldn’t write about.

    The web is too large to comment on everything you don’t like. What’s the point of trying?

  23. Dan

    March 28th, 2007 at 11:51 am

    Mike @ #22:

    I think the folks started getting uppity after the WebApps 101 post. People were just mean spirited on there…and apparently, they’ve decided to hang around.

  24. Michael Arrington

    March 28th, 2007 at 12:56 pm

    The typo issue on TechCrunch - an easy if logically broken comparison to make. But I agree, I’m not qualified to be president, either.

  25. Rune

    March 28th, 2007 at 1:27 pm

    Oh McCain, you’ve done it again

  26. JohnMcVirus

    March 28th, 2007 at 1:44 pm

    just went to John McCain’s myspace page and got 2 virus alerts. i deleted it, did a full scan, and never going to that virus infested page again. thanks noobCrunch.

  27. Daniel

    March 28th, 2007 at 2:50 pm

    Oh for Christ sake! The dude did not put a a promo-homo message on McCain’s site. He made a joke about hot lesbos munching the fish taco to embarass McCain for using his images.

    Stop reading your own leftist bias into everything Arrington.

    Sheesh.

  28. DanielthePoet

    March 28th, 2007 at 4:19 pm

    I agree with baron. It would be much cooler if they change it to “Add to GOP”!

    Why not plug the party?

  29. Daniel, Fashionising

    March 28th, 2007 at 4:37 pm

    A spelling mistake on MySpace? This guy is more in touch with the audience then you give him credit for ;)

  30. Michael Arrington

    March 28th, 2007 at 8:40 pm

    Daniel - Leftist bias? heh. I voted for Bush twice. That makes me a fascist baby-killer in Silicon Valley.

  31. Mario

    March 29th, 2007 at 3:05 am

    Michael - not just in Silicon Valley :-)

  32. Tom Maddox

    March 31st, 2007 at 2:12 pm

    Mike, the logical disconnect isn’t as clean as you say. You’re criticizing his blog, not his qualifications for president, then making your own logical jump: “some people are going to question whether the guy can hire competent people to surround him.” (Perhaps the same inquisitive and anonymous folks whom Katie Couric channeled in her interview with John and Elizabeth Edwards? Wonder how they feel about TechCrunch.)

    Anyway, informally and convincingly to some of us, people who live in glass houses …

    Finally, I should note that I don’t think the errors on TechCrunch figure highly among your lack of qualifications to be president.

  33. TPN WEB DESIGN INC.

    April 4th, 2007 at 10:57 am

    Nice.

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