Is Obama a Macintosh?

Really good analysis about message, style, perception and political campaigns. Excerpt:

But Emily Chang, the cofounder of Ideacodes, a Web designing and consulting firm, detected consistent messages, and summed them up: “His site is more youthful and hers more regal.”

Mr. Obama’s site is almost universally praised. Even Martin Avila, the general manager of the company responsible for the Republican Ron Paul’s Web site, said simply, “Barack’s site is amazing.”

But the compliments are clearly double-edged.

While Apple’s ad campaign maligns the PC by using an annoying man in a plain suit as its personification, it is not clear that aligning with the trendy Mac aesthetic is good politics. The iPod may be a dominant music player, but the Mac is still a niche computer. PC, no doubt, would win the Electoral College by historic proportions (with Mac perhaps carrying Vermont).

The author, Noam Cohen, goes on to point out that the hectic style of Hillary's web-site might evoke a sense of hard work and accomplishment while Obama's softer-feel, although providing a sense of comfort to visitors, doesn't say much beyond the attractive welcome mat.