Sweet Swine, Internet, and Politics

Politics in the age of the Internet is becoming much more fun. Case in point: A couple of days ago, a woman in Maryland, Mirlande Wilson, came forward to say that she had won part of the $656 million Mega Millions jackpot from last weekend. But she had lost the ticket. At a McDonald’s where she worked. At the press conference – where she didn’t say anything except that she’d lost the ticket – she wore a cap (a not very sartorially appropriate accessory when claiming several hundred million dollars in prize money) that bore the strange “Sweet Swine Pork Rinds.”

How is this political or involve the Internet? Soon after the woman’s story was published, someone noticed that when you Google “Sweet Swine Pork Rinds” (I won’t venture into why you Google that in the first place) the top link is to an anti-Romney website. The suspicion was that the whole lost ticket claim was a ruse to lure unsuspecting citizens who would see the cap and innocently Google “Sweet Swine Pork Rinds” and be taken to the anti-Romney site (where, I suppose, they would be indoctrinated against the former Governor).

But Scott Crider, the owner of the anti-Romney site, “Dogs Against Romney,” claims he just grabbed the SweetSwinePorkRinds.com domain name (for $9.99) when he saw the compelling cap in order to draw more viewers to his blog. “Dogs Against Romney” is narrated by Rusty the dog, and in the past day Crider has created another anti-Romney website, “Hogs Against Romney,” narrated by Wilbur the pig. Rusty and Wilbur are both concerned about Romney’s lack of compassion for animals, as demonstrated by his driving from Massachusetts to Toronto with his dog Seamus strapped to the top of his car. Crider, I suspect, has more political motives. Or at least more entrepreneurial: Both sites are selling an array of t-shirts and caps and bumper stickers.

There’s an interesting convergence here of media and internet and politics that’s odd but promising. I doubt that Crider (who lives in Alabama) is complicit with any conspiracy with Wilson (who lives in Maryland) to hype his anti-Romney websites. But he did use her odd cap, prominent in the photos of her, to draw people interested (for whatever possible reason) in finding out what “Sweet Swine Pork Rinds” are to his websites. Why do I feel this could just be the beginning of a very interesting future in the web of the web?