Two more stories on GOP presumptive presidential nominee Sen. John McCain’s apparent aversion to the Internet hit the wires (or should we say “a series of tubes” a la his longtime colleague, the recently indicted Sen. Ted Stevens would say) this weekend.

The pieces, which appeared in the New York Times and Politico, concede it’s not really a surprise that, if elected, McCain doesn’t plan to poke, post and twitter his way through the presidency, and note that limited Internet literacy doesn’t necessarily impede McCain’s ability to run the country. As reporter Mark Leibovich writes in the Times: “Presidents can avoid using computers if they want to. That’s one of the privileges of the office. They are surrounded by a staff entrusted with keeping them plugged in, day and night.”

But the senior Senator’s approach to all things electronic is problematic in itself. The Internet and all its points of access have become central to everyday American life. For better or worse, we get our news, meet our mates, pay our bills and buy everything from clothes to cars to houses on the Internet, and we need a president who is in tune with our wired lives.

In 1993, President Bill Clinton first installed e-mail in the White House, envisioning a “high-tech presidency” that would allow him to communicate directly “to the people” not “through the people” and connecting with the country’s tech-driven trajectory. As the Times reported way back in ‘93 (when, it might be appropriate to note, this young blogger was all of 7 years old): “In many ways, the challenge at the White House is similar to that confronted in daily corporate America as companies try to tailor fast-changing technology to their organizational needs.”

Fast forward 15 years from the day the Clinton White House first got (e)mail—It’s not just corporate America that is undergoing daily updates anymore. The Internet has invaded almost every facet of our existence, and become a central ingredient in civic engagement and education.

Just look at a study released in June by the Pew Internet & American Life Project that found a whopping 46 percent of Americans used the Internet, e-mail or cell phones to get news about the campaign, share their views and mobilize others. The Web isn’t just making us better informed, it’s making us more involved in political discourse; 11 percent of those surveyed had jumped into the debate by forwarding someone else’s news or commentary to a friend, and six percent of respondents (including 12 percent of young people) had e-mailed, posted, or blogged their own views on the race. So now when politicians talk “to” us, we talk back. Furthermore, 28 percent of wired Americans polled said they feel more personally connected to the campaign because of the Web, and 22 percent wouldn’t have been as involved if not for the Internet.

To give credit where credit is due, McCain has taken some steps in warming to the Web. He has a Facebook profile cluttered with wall posts, YouTube videos and applications (including a very intriguing game called Pork Invaders), he employs a brigade of bloggers led by his daughter, and makes public pronouncements of his progress in waking up his inner webmaster.

One strategist interviewed by Politico points out that outfitting the 71 year old in an array of gizmos and gadgets could very well backfire by rendering the Senator a goofy grandpa trying to learn from his grandkids how to use that newfangled satellite remote control.

While that very well might be true, McCain is taking a much greater risk by passing up those iPhone photo ops—seeming out of touch to the viral political coming-of-age spreading across the Web and into homes across the nation.

But even with all the young staffer-programmed online features, if McCain can’t talk tech, he can’t connect with the 73 percent of Americans who use the Web. Reading e-mails that staffs show him throughout the day and “marveling” at his “wizard” wife’s ability to make movie tickets and boarding passes magically appear from their laser-jet printer might not be enough in an age when protesters are as likely to gather in Second Life as on the National Mall.

Just for fun: a super techno YouTube remix of Stevens’ description of the ‘Net.

Tags: Pew Internet & American Life