He Can't Email...and apparently his opponent can't google [Obama belittles McCain war injuries]

The GW Patriot ^ | September 12, 2008 | Political Pulse

[Diago]

So it's no secret that John McCain has never emailed, or googled, or even posted on a blog.

And to anyone on the Barack Obama campaign that sounds like a great target... Hey look my opponent is outdated! He doesn't even know what Facebook or Youtube are... He's never used Gmail or AIM... How can he lead the free world?


Sounds like a great idea for an ad right?


Well, it would make for a great ad except... if the Obama campaign would have engaged in a little fact checking (something many political campaigns are loath to do) they would have found several stories by prominent journalists explaining WHY McCain doesn't use a computer.

Back in 2000, Boston Globe and Forbes wrote stories on McCain's "technical illiteracy".

Here's a quote from the Globe article:

McCain’s severe war injuries prevent him from combing his hair, typing on a keyboard, or tying his shoes. Friends marvel at McCain’s encyclopedic knowledge of sports. He’s an avid fan - Ted Williams is his hero - but he can’t raise his arm above his shoulder to throw a baseball.

After Vietnam, McCain had Ann Lawrence, a physical therapist, help him regain flexibility in his leg, which had been frozen in an extended position by a shattered knee. It was the only way he could hope to resume his career as a Navy flier, but Lawrence said the treatment, taken twice a week for six months, was excruciatingly painful.

So while McCain can't email... apparently Obama's legion staff can't use Google or Lexis-Nexis.

But that's not the full story. Just because McCain can't use a computer doesn't mean he doesn't have his staff use the keyboard for him.

In this interview from AP/NYT:

Q: What websites if any do you look at regularly?

Mr. McCain: Brooke and Mark show me Drudge, obviously, everybody watches, for better or for worse, Drudge. Sometimes I look at Politico. Sometimes RealClearPolitics, sometimes.

...

Q: But do you go on line for yourself?

Mr. McCain: They go on for me. I am learning to get online myself, and I will have that down fairly soon, getting on myself. I don’t expect to be a great communicator, I don’t expect to set up my own blog, but I am becoming computer literate to the point where I can get the information that I need – including going to my daughter’s [Meagan] blog first, before anything else.

A section of the Forbe's article on McCain and emailing:

In certain ways, McCain was a natural Web candidate. Chairman of the Senate Telecommunications Subcommittee and regarded as the U.S. Senate’s savviest technologist, McCain is an inveterate devotee of email. His nightly ritual is to read his email together with his wife, Cindy. The injuries he incurred as a Vietnam POW make it painful for McCain to type. Instead, he dictates responses that his wife types on a laptop. “She’s a whiz on the keyboard, and I’m so laborious,” McCain admits.

If McCain was a luddite calling for the restriction of technological innovation in politics and the marketplace I could see this attack sticking. But apparently the Obama team is willing to resort to desperate measures when the game gets tight.

Also, while I understand that being technologically literate is an important trait in the Information Age, is it necessary for our Commander-in-Chief to say... text while in the Oval Office? Or send a witty email joke to his staff? Doesn't POTUS have a staff devoted to sending out emails, letters, etc? I would hope the President's time would be better spent than typing away on a keyboard.

Lastly I'd like to point out an excellent argument by Jonah Goldberg:

Lord knows I think the chicken-hawk arguments are stupid. And I don’t think the fact that Obama never served in the military should count against him in and of itself. But how stupid is it for the Obama campaign to claim that McCain is unqualified to be president because he can’t grasp cyber-security issues based on the fact he has never sent an email when the McCain campaign can just as easily say Obama can’t understand first order national security issues because he’s never fired a rifle, flown a plane, commanded men in battle, or faced an enemy? I mean which prepares someone to be commander in chief better, hitting “send” on AOL or fighting a war?

Here's all the links:

Boston Globe piece from 2000

Forbes piece from 2000

Jonah Goldberg piece from National Review's blog "The Corner"

AP/NYT Interview from 2008

[Darkwolf377]

That’s too clever by half, especially since McCain’s and others’ telling the story of his Vietnam experience means those injuries are never out of anyone’s mind. The point is how McCain is strong because he’s overcome those obstacles; Obama and company just aren’t thinking in that three-dimensional way. They’re strictly checkers players.

[Paul R.]

Good point. If anyone here has not seen it & would like to forward it to, say, a lib friend, Bill Whittle over at ejectejecteject.com wrote a great essay which happens to include an excellent discussion of what it takes, intelligence-wise (and ability to use technology) to fly a Vietnam era jet fighter:

http://www.ejectejecteject.com/archives/2006_11.html

[Paul R.]

I have been thinking along the same lines the last few days: Sen. McCain could run an ad showing himself and Cindy answering e-mail (say, to a constituent) and make the ‘IT’ usage almost an ‘incidental’ part of the ad. Other angles to demonstrate “tech” savvy could be subtly worked in as well.

[supercat]

I have been thinking along the same lines the last few days: Sen. McCain could run an ad showing himself and Cindy answering e-mail (say, to a constituent) and make the ‘IT’ usage almost an ‘incidental’ part of the ad. Other angles to demonstrate “tech” savvy could be subtly worked in as well.

I'm not sure what wording would be best for the text, but how about starting with a close-up of an email screen (probably font size 2x normal or so, to ensure legibility on television sets). McCain voice-over would read the text:

From: mccain@his.public.email.address
To: barack@his.public.email.address

Dear Sen. Obama:

Communists crippled my fingers so I generally dictate my emails. One of your staffers seems to finds that funny. Why? Such attitude is a "change" from what I'm used to. Your colleague,

The letters "J-o-h-n M-c-C-a-i-n" would appear rather slowly, accompanied by audible keyboard noises. Track back the camera to reveal John McCain at the keyboard, awkwardly pecking out his name. Then have a secretary enter; John McCain slides his seat over so she can sit down. John McCain resumes speaking at a relatively fast pace, as the secretary can be seen to type in real-time with just enough lag to suggest that she's responding to his words:

PS--Perhaps some might consider it a mark of honor for me to spend painful hours at the keyboard to write my emails, but frankly I have work to do and can't afford to waste twenty minutes typing letters I could dictate in two. I could spend more time at the computer if I didn't need to accomplish anything, but I take my job pretty seriously. I would hope you could understand that.

Not sure the ad could really be done well in 30 seconds rather than 60, but it includes a few points that would distinguish John McCain from Barack Obama (e.g. the need to get real work done). My writing is pretty feeble, but perhaps someone better than myself could do something with the concept.

[Paul R.]

Well, I don’t know about all that. Maybe a lead in with a line about “Technology is key in the coming century” with video showing a pilot “at work” in a fighter plane cockpit, and then a shot of it taking off, to start. Then go to a quote (preferably from a Dem or a left leaning newspaper or magazine) about McCain being the most technologically savvy member of the Senate. Then go to John and Cindy McCain answering e-mails (but not so many details.) Maybe a comment about: “John McCain’s Vietnam injuries left it difficult for him to type, but he has always found it important to communicate with his constituents...” I don’t think much more needs to be said.