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Washington: "McCain Blogette" seems an oxymoron: a senior citizen and his presidential campaign chronicled by the Facebook generation.
This is the goal of John McCain's daughter Meghan and her internet diary, www.mccainblogette.com. Meghan, 23, offers an insider's view, offbeat and sometimes surprisingly intimate.
While the website is about a campaign, it is not about issues and rarely mentions other candidates. Rather, it is intended to make her parents, and politics, seem more real.
There is a message for anyone worried her 71-year-old father is too old: "I have yet to see Dad take a nap on the trail," Meghan writes under a picture of herself napping.
A different photo shows Meghan demanding, arm outstretched, that her father hand over the candy bar he wants to eat for dinner.
Meghan decided to blog about the campaign, with help from a couple of friends, after graduating last year from Columbia University.
Behind-the-scenes
Her website mixes behind-the-scenes photos and videos from the campaign trail with iPod music playlists, designer fashion, even make-up tips.
It can be addictive, says Julie Barko Germany, director of the Institute for Politics and the Internet at George Washington University.
"It feels almost like picking up a copy of Us Weekly - real stars, they're just like us!" she said.
Meghan's site shows her father through a younger lens, making him seem, if not more hip, then definitely less crotchety, said Germany, whose husband works for McCain's campaign.
Occasionally, there's something revealing.
On the night The New York Times published a story suggesting McCain had an extramarital affair with a lobbyist, John and Cindy McCain were silent. They waited until morning to hold a carefully coordinated news conference in which McCain emphatically denied the story, which offered no direct evidence of an affair.
Impassioned defence
But just after the story broke, Meghan posted a few thoughts that provided a glimpse into how her family must have been feeling. She did not mention the story but made an emotional defence of her father.
"Having grown up in politics, I know it's an industry that, for all intents and purposes, is known for being dirty and cruel," she wrote.
"Why do I choose to be involved in politics right now? Because my father is different," she wrote. "He's compassionate, full of life, hilarious and is a beacon of integrity to myself and to so many others. Politics is rough, but I absolutely adore my Dad and this campaign and have never, ever stopped believing in him."
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