Friday Poll: What kind of gadget would McCain be?

News.com Poll

McCain as a gadget
If John McCain were a piece of tech gear, which would he be?

Panasonic Toughbook (ruggedized laptop)
Phonograph
Leatherman multi-tool
Presto (HP's device that receives and prints e-mail for those that don't have a PC)

View results

As part of CNET News' election coverage, we thought we'd turn the Crave Friday Poll to a burning question on the minds of so many voters. If the two major presidential candidates were tech gadgets, which would they be?

Last week we asked you which gadget Democrat Barack Obama would be. The iPhone (aka the JesusPhone) handily beat out the other three options, taking 43.3 percent of the vote. Windows Vista was second at 27.5 percent, Facebook third with 19.3 percent, and Baby's First Walkman last with just 10 percent of the vote.

Today we move on to Obama's Republican opponent, John McCain. If none of our poll options quite fit, in your view, be sure to suggest your own ideas in the Talkback section below. We know you'll come up with some great ones.

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[ddesy]

Many people said phonograph? I love listening to records. I loathe McCain.

[Michichael]

Broken record knockback of the Bush Administration. I honestly don't see how anyone could sanely vote for McCain. It should be no contest. Then again, we've got people that believe in scientology that vote so I suppose anything is possible.

[pelicancrew]

Yeah, and those crazy scientologists vote for, guess who, the democratic nominee. Actually, the sane voters can see right through the Keith Olbermans, Michael Moores, Hollywood celebrities, and yes, even the Rush Limbaughs of this world....vote for what is best for the country, not for what Oprah tells you....I actually liked the IPhone choice for Obama-new,different, flashy, but really just a toy at this point, not a necessity.

[MadLyb]

I would have had a Hand Crank Telephone as an option.

[hhandyman]

Make that an edison cylender Phonograph An Original wind it up and repeats Mary Had a Little lamb.. The thing iis an analog man in a digital age.. Befor you complain hes disablled due to his war injury since he is not a recent victom of war and is far from broke He can get the most modern equipment and not even touch the computer and it will display print and even edit his words from an audio interface and we know he can talk.
too bad hes not willing to humble himself and ask the average kindergardener how to do the simplest things and grow from there..

[robert06890]

top of the line 8-track - still works, but its very s-l-o-w and not of today's world
or

cranky Walkman - never old songs, cantankerous quality, but it looks rather contemporary.
or

an old electric transformer- if you touch it wrong, it can and will kill you...

[discern]

A wedge-shaped stone.

[terraracer]

A Casio-VL tone, the kitchy hand held home synthesizer from 1980. It keeps playing the same old tune, and no matter what instrument you select, none of it sounds very genuine. It claimed to be something new and different at the time, but really it is best known for generating the same tired, old cheesy repeating phrases.

[discern]

No, make that a round, blunt stone.

[kelly13--2008]

Left Handed Door Knob

[Kev_Orng]

A sharpened stick?

[HighwayHome]

An ancient abacus, assuming he knows how to count.

[DigitalFrog]

I voted for the leatherman multitool, the others are a much more delicate devices that would quit working after one good hit/drop. I missed the Obama vote, but my choice for him would have been a tickle-me Elmo - cute and it's noises and motions make people happy, but doesn't eally do anything useful other than that.

[BigTenFan80]

That's giving him too much credit for modern technology. He would be more like one of the following: a Maxwell Smart shoe phone (vintage 1965) or a large shoulder mount video camera (vintage late 70's/early 80's). Probably the latter sineit's abou the time he left the Navy and had to stop paying attention to technology

[pchow98]

Age discrimination! I still have a records player with ruby needle and lots of LPs!
Seriously, I agree with DigitalFrog on Obama except I would say a marionette instead of tickle-me Elmo. Liberman and the rest of the "old-guards" of the parties will be drawing Obama's strings.

[mrspektacular]

I would have to say... some kind of tool. :0)

[spheretubebox]

Totally!

[krozzz]

McCain? A Republican screen-saver.

[wtortorici]

My idea is McCain would be a TRS-80 model1.
It worked if you had a pink eraser.
Otherwise it would crap out on you when you needed it the most.

[GreySkies01]

I would suggest he is like the tire I had to replace today.

Old, worn out and leaking hot air everywere with the chance of blowing out and dying at any time.

[pctec100]

How about a 5 1/4 in. floppy disk. It was useful at some point a long time ago, has limited memory capacity and if you have any of them still around you can bet they are corrupt.

[spheretubebox]

The wheel :)