When the New York Times' Noam Cohen compared presidential candidates Barack Obama to a MacIntosh and Hillary Clinton to a PC, some sort of surrealistic line had been crossed. Comparing candidates to technology signifies a rhetorical control of images and language seeking to establish distinction and difference.
New York Times Illustration
The comparison also plays into the notion that candidates, like computers, are branded with distinct identities. Branding either Obama as a Mac or Clinton as a PC trivializes the more substantive issues emerging from the campaigns. The writer could have just as well compared Obama to a convertible sportster and Clinton to mini van. Rhetorically, the comparisons become a shift in agency from issues to personalities.