He says, apparently with a straight face, that McCain might not be able to use computers due to a war injury. I kid you not.
UPDATE: See! John McCain operate a Blackberry! Watch! John McCain use a cellphone! You see, there is no physical impediment to John McCain using these tools of the now, he’s just intellectually uncurious across the board and makes the active decision even with his vast fortune and position of power within our government, to be uneducated in the basics of the 21st century.
John McCain: Leading America On The Bridge To The 19th Century.
I’m pretty sure it came out during the 2000 primaries that McCain’s disabilities prevented him from being able to do any sort of fine finger movements in at least one hand if not both. Why he hasn’t bothered to get a computer equipped w/ a voice recognition system or something, I don’t know. This isn’t a new claim being made though. It is a claim though which it’s likely the Obama camp didn’t bother to research any possible background beyond “McCain is so old!”.
OMG!
SFC B—are you kidding? The man can use a blackberry! He’s notorious for staying on his cell phone . . . . Get it! Smaller keys.
My ninety year old great uncle is wracked with arthritis all over his body and hands and would be lost without his computer.
John McCain didn’t WANT to learn to use a computer.
This isn’t about his body, it’s about his not so beautiful mind.
Ya know–if you keep carrying that water long distances for him–you’ll acquire arthritis yourself.
McCain has used about 700 different reasons why he can’t use a computer.
Let’s try to imagine an ad campaign against Max Cleland that criticizes him for not exercising enough. Now let’s imagine Oliver writing, “He says that Cleland might not be able to use a treadmill due to a war injury. I kid you not.”
You’re a pathetic man, Oliver.
Go listen to a Django Reinhardt guitar solo and tell me that no one could ever learn to type if they had a hand injury. Reinhardt had two working fingers on his left hand, and he was the premier jazz guitarist of his day. Of course, he WANTED to play guitar, and that gave him the drive to overcome his injury.
It’s no mystery why McCain is so inept. His entire adult life, he has had people to do that for him. The last thing he ever wrote for himself was probably class work at the USNA, and as we can see by his class standing, he was pretty inept at that also.
People like McCain who have never had to compose their own letters, who have always had stenographers to put words on paper for them, are organically incapable, especially at his advanced age, of picking up a skill like computing.
My mom made me learn to type when I was 12. When computers came along, I had no problem adapting. My mom, who was a good typist all her life and wrote thousands of letters, is now 88 and had no trouble learning how to use a computer when she was older than McCain is now.
There is no way McCain can change from functionally illiterate to computer adept in the lifetime he has left and with the mental tools he is saddled with.
Interestingly, George W. Bush seems to be completely unable to use a computer himself.
Except that McCain’s injuries don’t prevent him from using a computer, by his own admission. Do all of you get marching orders from Drudge? Or just the really dense ones?
Well, that certainly disqualifies McCain as a legitimate candidate for the presidency! Who ever heard of a president having a stenographer? Does the man have no shame?
Does “using a computer” always require the dexterity to type messages on a regular basis? Or maybe it’s possible to point and click without doing much typing? It’s hilarious that you’ve been beaten so badly that you’ve got to fall back on the email attack again.
When is your next post on how the polls don’t matter?
For god’s sake Stephen Hawking uses a computer!
John McCain isn’t being asked to run forty miles on his arms and fingers.
IT’S A COMPUTER!
AND JWG–you are not an analytical person. The Max Cleland analogy is weak–
as paraplegics indeed exercise on treadmills (ever hear of prosthetics?) play sports etc. But it seems poor John cannot use one of these new fangled typewriters because of a war injury?
And I would say YOU are incredibly pathetic to take on a this truly idiotic train of reasoning–again trying to give McCain a pass on something he should be ashamed of in this society . . . .
But–Whatever. . .
This statement coming from the guy who can’t post anything about the Palin interview until he finds out the current leftist talking point.
Have you come up with any original analysis yet, or is your indepth wiki link on the “Bush Doctrine” going to be the extent of your views on Palin until you see a new action alert?
Oooooookay . . . . .
JWG is raving. Let’s not feed the troll anymore.
Now that would make a great campaign ad!
“If you can’t type for a sustained period, you should hang your head in SHAME! Obama can type over 60 words per minute! The choice for president is clear!”
Here we are, from 2000.
http://www.forbes.com/asap/2000/0529/053_print.html
“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.”
Okay, so his injuries make it painful for him to type, not make it difficult for him to make fine movements. My mistake. I didn’t clearly remembers a comment buried in an article I dimly remembered from more than 8 years ago.
My Bad.
Regardless, the “McCain doesn’t use email” meme from the Obama campaign is provably inaccurate while Goldberg’s defense is mostly true.
Despite Obama’s campaign being the supposed “tech savvy” group with the “plugged-in” candidate, they just seem to keep getting pounded online by the McCain camp. They’ve been rope-a-doped.
Yes, you should save your energy to point and scowl at the disabled man for not typing his own email messages.
Yes, he’s a poor widdle disabled man who has no problem using a blackberry but he’s so debilitated from telling us every five minutes he was a POW we should just give him the presidency.
Well, that certainly disqualifies McCain as a legitimate candidate for the presidency! Who ever heard of a president having a stenographer? Does the man have no shame?
I disagree with the logic, but your heart’s in the right place.
You know I never said any such thing, right? You know you just made up a “strawman,” didn’t you? Because if you didn’t, now you do.
I will assume it was in jest, and that everyone reading this knows you made that up, and that your untrue statement is unconnected to anything I said.
McCain’s computer illiteracy is not the reason he is unqualified for the presidency. It’s just a SYMPTOM of his limited intellect, which along with his failed ethics make him unqualified.
I suspect there’s a bit of distance between giving a man the presidency and ridiculing the disabilities he acquired through torture — but I guess leftists see the world a little differently when it comes to mocking the disabled.
Biden demands the wheelchair bound to stand and Obama demands those with crushed fingers and arms to type 60 wpm. Then Oliver points and laughs. Ladies and gentlemen, I give you the democratic party of the 21st century!
Yes, we all know that leftists equate physical handicaps with limited intellect. That’s not news to me. I’m just surprised you’re so willing to state it publicly!
Stephen.
Frickin’.
Hawking.
‘Nuff said?
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.
Wait. The presidential candidate needs assistance to read email?
Why is McCain playing the “too old” card? Maybe he should quit the race, since it is obviously taxing his limited physical abilities.
Now that we have heard about his physical injuries, how do we know he isn’t suffing from mental problems such as PTSD due to his captivity? That would certainly explain the erratic behavior, his anger management problems, his short attention span, his mood swings, his memory problems, his tendency toward rash decisions, his ethical failures, and his suddenly going blank and forgetting where he is while in the middle of a sentence. However, PTSD is probably not responsible for McCain being dumb as a post, since that was evident before his capture.
What IS the nutwing explanation for what appear to be serious mental health issues for McCain? Is it that they don’t notice it, or they are doing their best to make us look at the prettier half of the ticket and ignore the ever more obvious decay at the top.
Wow. I’ve really got the sick bastards pulling out all the stops. McCain has physical injuries so we better assume he’s got all sorts of mental problems as well! He’s probably been brainwashed — don’t forget that one!
I’ve got to go to bed since I am getting up early to attend a workshop tomorrow about ways to assist physically challenged students in the classroom.
Try not to push any cane-assisted walkers down into the street while I’m gone. Maybe just point and laugh at them — that might hold you over until later.
JWG, this is a step up for these people. Here, they were making fun of how McCain had his teeth smashed out while a POW, and the replacements don’t quite work as well as the originals:
http://www.oliverwillis.com/2008/05/19/mccains-whistle/
Here’s a flip side of this, though. EVERY FUCKING DAY I get at least one spam from the Obama camp — apparently some asshole though it would be “educational” to sign me up for their lists, and those morons at Obama HQ don’t verify their mailing lists. On the other hand, I’ve NEVER gotten one e-mail from the McCain campaign.
Given the choice between a spammer and a non-spammer, I’ll go for McCain.
J.
/golf-clap for Jay
Well, that certainly disqualifies McCain as a legitimate candidate for the presidency! Who ever heard of a president having a stenographer? Does the man have no shame?
I thought ultra-cons were opposed to hiring “unnecessary” government personell.
I suspect there’s a bit of distance between giving a man the presidency and ridiculing the disabilities he acquired through torture
Really? Because according to McCain, McCain wasn’t tortured.
“Leave John McCain alone! I mean it!”
Poor JWG…
15 days off message and still going strong.
More like this, please!
Of course, the problem here is that the Obama campaign said that McCain DID NOT KNOW HOW to use email. Let’s remember what the slug Pfeiffer said:
“It’s extraordinary that someone who wants to be our president and our commander in chief doesn’t know how to send an e-mail.”
Right. If a McCain spokesperson had said, “It’s extraordinary that someone who wants to be our President and our commander in chief doesn’t have a lick of foreign policy experience, zero executive experience, and no military experience”, Willis et al would be going into pants shitting hysterics and squealing like stuck pigs about McCain “QUESTIONING OBAMA’S PATRIOTISM!!”
The Obama campaign is sinking faster than the Titanic and the “hard hitting” response is a disco ball ad? Wow.
John McCain was physically, mentally, and emotionally tortured for five and a half years in a Vietnam prison cell. He’s earned the right to not know how to use an email machine.
Here’s a solution that makes everyone happy:
McCain for president.
Obama for presidential secretary.
That way, Obama can get some actual executive-type experience, too.
J.
I think the term is “personal assistant”. “Secretary” is considered sexist and we all know that’s not allowed this election cycle.
McCain had to leave Carol because he was a POW
Here’s a solution that makes everyone happy:
Obama for president.
McCain and his ultra-con ilk can continue to whine about Gay Muslim Mexicans raping our churches and burning our women while the grown-ups run the country.
In an age where everyone has the keys to a vast library, John McCain is among the small minority that does not know how to use the card file to find out something.
So he will always be a prisoner of whomever supplies him with the information he is unable to find for himself.
I can’t believe that this amazing limitation, of needing assistance to get information everyone on this board can find easily, is not of enormous concern. Is it possible that his class rating of nearly dead last MEANS something, that maybe he has a few intellectual limitations?
Wouldn’t it concern people if he couldn’t read? Being computer illiterate in this age is pretty close to that. Sure, he can have other people read for him, and McCain has the resources to cover for this gigantic handicap, but do you want that in a PRESIDENT?
Isn’t one ignorant, unintelligent, uncurious boob who doesn’t know how to find anything out enough?
I can’t believe that this amazing limitation, of needing assistance to get information everyone on this board can find easily, is not of enormous concern. Is it possible that his class rating of nearly dead last MEANS something, that maybe he has a few intellectual limitations?
But don’t you remember from 2000 & 2004? Smart people are elitists that must be scorned at all costs. Only the morons are truly fit to lead!
What concerns me much more than being personally computer illiterate is a prospective lack of understanding for internet economics (or, by his own admission, a lack of understanding of economics in general). It may be a failure of my imagination but I don’t see it as an imperative for the president’s job. They’re sort of always at the mercy of their information-gatherers, are they not?
A basic understanding of how money and goods ownership move electronically, a bit more relevant.
Jay Tea: Given the choice between a spammer and a non-spammer, I’ll go for McCain.
Yup, that’s exactly what I’m going to base my vote on, too. Than you so much for elevating the discourse by providing a much more sensible criteria than whether someone is able to use a computer.
Repack Rider: So he will always be a prisoner of whomever supplies him with the information he is unable to find for himself.
As are we all.
You’ve been uncharacteristically bad about making whatever point you have, RR. Do you really picture any President getting advice from a 20 year veteran of the State Dept and expert on, say, South American politics and then saying “That’s interesting. But, hold on while I go Google “Brazil” and see what I come up with on my own.” ??
It isn’t his ability to use Google or not that should concern folks about McCain. It’s whether or not he will a) surround himself with advisers who provide him with a variety of viewpoints and b) have the mental acuity to ask relevant questions about the advice they give.
Repack: Sure, he can have other people read for him, and McCain has the resources to cover for this gigantic handicap, but do you want that in a PRESIDENT?
Gosh, no. And I don’t want a president who can’t walk from the Oval Office to the Cabinet Room either. Good thing we never had one of those.
OK, that was snarky. But whether the President can surf the web with skill is less important by far than whether he is engaged and has good judgment. If he never goes on line but does read (with a critical eye) several major newspapers a day I’d be OK with that.
Repack: Isn’t one ignorant, unintelligent, uncurious boob who doesn’t know how to find anything out enough?
More than enough. But does determining someone’s level of knowledge, intelligence and intellectual curiosity all boil down to whether they know how to use and @sum function in Excel?
Jay Tea: “those morons at Obama HQ don’t verify their mailing lists”
And you don’t know how to go to the bottom of email and “unsubscribe”, please don’t you try to help McCain, the almost blind assisting the blind. Republicans need a seeing eye wolf.
If I understand this correctly everyone in the McCain campaign was a POW, 72 years old and out of touch with the progress of the last thirty years?
If he can’t use a computer keyboard, how in the hell can he handle “The Button”?
Hmm, maybe that’s a good thing.
Funny thing is that immediately upon being sworn in, Obama will discontinue using email as well.
All written presidential communications are required to be saved.
golum for President?
Because he suffered.
All written presidential communications are required to be saved.
Really. Does Dick Cheney know this?
If this is a “requirement,” what SHOULD happen to an administration that “loses” tens of thousands of embarrassing emails on subjects being investigated by Congress?
Since as you say, it’s a “requirement.”
“Does Dick Cheney know this?”
Is Dick Ceney president?
“what SHOULD happen to an administration that “loses” tens of thousands of embarrassing emails …”
I don’t know. Maybe they should be hung, drawn and quartered. The entrails could be lit on fire and strung up over a bridge so Kos can have a “screw ‘em” moment.
So the President’s communicaton must be saved, but not the Vice President’s? Seems unlikely (not calling you a liar, mind. Just seems unlikely). Got a source handy?
Is Dick Ceney president?[sic]
Yes. Where have you been?
But are you saying that email from the OVP is NOT required to be saved? Go ahead, say it, “Email from the Office of the Vice President is exempt from the law requiring presidential emails to be saved.”
Say it. I dare you.
Because if you do, you know you will be required to defend it by citing the statute.
Maybe they should be hung, drawn and quartered. The entrails could be lit on fire and strung up over a bridge so Kos can have a “screw ‘em” moment.
Maybe we could just give them a fraternity hazing, like the North Vietnamese gave McCain while they weren’t torturing him. That would satisfy me, and it wouldn’t even hurt them.
Well, according to Darth Cheney, the OVP doesn’t even belong to one of the 3 branches of government, so I guess he can do whatever he wants with them, yes?
Of course he saves them; classified Secret in the man-size safe in his office. And then sets them on fire if congress gets too nosy.
Let me see if I have this straight: John McCain is apparently completely up to speed on the internet and modern communications technologies, and in fact pioneered the use of the internet in his 2000 presidential campaign, but doesn’t personally type email messages on account of his war injuries. And Barack thinks this means McCain isn’t qualified to serve as POTUS?
Are you guys on crack?
Conrad, that’s the only conclusion I can come to. That Obama ad was one of the lamest ones of the campaign.
I like Mr. Willis’ update.
Um, no.
Folks are already digging up several prior references, dating back to the 2000 election, which highlight McCain’s use of technology. As Instapundit mentioned today, McCain was the first candidate to use the Internet to his advantage in a campaign. And in this cycle, as I’ve said before, McCain’s campaign is clearly running circles around Obama’s online at this point in the election.
Obama’s “He can’t use email” ad is an abject failure. It insults a voting block, it’s factually inaccurate, and it failed to forward Obama’s message. Even Mr. Willis himself doesn’t bother trying to tie the “email ignorance” with the point of the ad “McCain is out of touch and more of the same”. A bald-faced partisan supporter of Obama doesn’t even get the ad enough to bother mentioning the point of the ad.
It’s an Epic Fail for Obama and it didn’t have to be.
And Barack thinks this means McCain isn’t qualified to serve as POTUS?
I don’t think that is the SINGLE reason that Obama believes McCain isn’t equalified, but of course, unlike you, I do not speak for Obama.
You don’t either? So that was a “strawman” argument? Thanks for clarifying.
My understanding is that the reasons McCain is unqualified for the presidency INCLUDE his inability to find information available on the web to you and me, but you can’t leave out his limited intelligence, the symptoms of PTSD, his short attention span, his self-confessed tendency to make decisions without thinking, his violent temper, his sexism, his close ties to discredited lobbyists, his ethical failures, his lies, his confession that he is out of touch with the real world due to his isolation in a “bubble,” his flip-flops on every major issue, his support of torture, his elitism, his amazing ignorance of foreign affairs, his continued support of the war in Iraq, his adultery, his conflicts of interest…
I’m tired of typing this stuff. Add your own reasons from here.
That’s SERIAL adultery.
Other than all that, though, he’s a fine candidate.
Oh, and his flip-flopping, don’t forget that.
Now all of the computer technology and emailing can be left to McCain’s VP Sarah Palin and hubby Todd, who used “gov-sarah@yahoo.com” to conduct Alaskan state business instead of Palin’s secured state issued email account. That way they can claim executive privilege like Palin is doing on 1,100 emails in the Troopergate investigation.
Fortunately for McCain and anyone else who is handicapped and wants to use computers, input devices for the handicapped are numerous and very good. Unfortunately for Goldberg none have yet been found to compensate for HIS handicap.