When you think about Barack Obama what words come to mind? Change? Hope? Socialism? What about John McCain? Maverick? Strength? Bush?

Well, according to one market research firm, Synovate, Obama is to Nokia as McCain is to Apple. But of course!

It goes like this: Obama’s campaign has focused on linking “his” issues—the economy, education, why the Iraq war was a waste of time and money—to you, the voter. It’s all about, in the words of Synovate, “you, you, you.” That, apparently, is just like Nokia, whose marketing focuses on its key attributes rather than the Nokia brand, per se.

Compare that to McCain, whose campaign has been more about himself—I’m a war hero (five-and-a-half-years!), I’m not “that one,” etc.—than anything else. It’s more like, “ooh, look at me,” which, in Synovate’s view, is more along the lines of how Apple does business.

In summary, Obama = Nokia and McCain = Apple.

Well, Nokia sure must happy with that comparison.

We just got an e-mail from Verizon Wireless asking us to pass along this message regarding that McCain cellphone tower story. Turns out it has a problem with the Washington Post’s reportage.

The Washington Post story regarding Verizon providing a cell tower to the McCain Ranch is wrong. Verizon received a request from Mrs. McCain, but declined. Subsequent to that, the Secret Service made a legitimate request for a temporary tower for its work and Verizon complied as is required by our contract with the agency. The Secret Service request, made on May 28, specifically said it needed the service urgently and requested that Verizon “explore every possible means of providing an alternative cellular or data communications source in the referenced area and provide any short term implementation of any type as a solution in the interim.”

Now, who do you believe, Verizon Wireless or the Washington Post? I doubt the Post was all, “Let’s make something up!” In any event, apparently the two parties are working toward a clarification/correction of the original story, so if you sit tight there may well be a definitive answer to all of this. We look forward to that day.

Also, and completely unrelated to anything of substance, note the double space after each sentence in the above quote. Isn’t that an old newspaper convention or something?

Did John and Cindy McCain use their telecom industry connections to have a cellphone tower built right by one of their many houses in order to improve signal strength? That’s what the Washington Post implies.

It seems the McCain’s Sedona, Ariz. ranch didn’t have the best cellphone reception in early 2007, so Cindy—what was that word John called her? Begins with a C…—asked Verizon Wireless to construct a tower nearby. After looking into the logistics of constructing a permanent tower, VZW balked, instead opting to install a temporary tower. These types of towers are used when a spike in cellphone activity is anticipated: a big sporting event or, here, a presidential campaign.

AT&T later helped out similarly.

There’s several things going on here. One, when was the last time VZW or AT&T went above and beyond for you, the average person out there? Do you live in an area with spotty cellphone coverage? Too bad.

Then there’s the whole issue of John McCain being a member of the Senate Commerce Committee, which overseas the FCC and, by extension, the likes of VZW and AT&T. Is that a conflict of interest?

Now I have to ask: does anyone, really, in their heart of hearts, actually care? Seems like the same old non-story that fills the cable news networks all day long.

Dear Diary,

Whilst lying in bed this morning I decided to check the news from my BlackBerry and found out that John McCain thinks the government should offer up a prize of $300 million to anyone who can engineer a new car battery that surpasses current technology. While I like the idea of this, I really don’t think McCain gives a damn about the current state of the planet’s health. Our country is far too dependent on oil, whether it be foreign or abroad, and alternative fuels and vehicles running on such are far too expensive than the general population can afford. Look at the Tesla roadster, for example, that’s more of a fashion statement than anything else. Why not build an electric car for the masses instead?

However, McCain has proposed that car makers be fined for not abiding by fuel-efficiency standards. He also wants to implement incentives for those using domestic and foreign alcohol-based fuels like ethanol, but he fails to realize that ethanol is a dead end. The aforementioned proposal would also provide US car makers with a tax credit of $5,000 for each zero-carbon emissions vehicle sold.

Yeah, I hope this catches on, but something tells me the car makers of this country will squash this idea rather quickly. It’s sad, really.