As a tech savvy young professional, I see many of my peers Tweet, post and podcast about how McCain doesn’t use email so he certainly can’t understand the world or be President. What a bunch of hogwash. Most CEOs and executives don’t even read their own email, their staff does. Obama even went so far as to make an ad about it (1982) and Scott Ott of Scrappleface fired back with this great response.
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Tags: Barack Obama, John McCain, TV ad
LOL!
He doesn’t know how to use a computer because he was a POW! Hilarious.
Wow, you just keep digging yourself in deeper. Could you be any more disrespectful?
Yes, he was injured defending this country and it makes it hard for him to use a computer. How much simpler could it be?
The only one who is disrespecting McCain’s service is the McCain camp by continually invoking his POW status as some twisted justification for whatever current gaffe or controversy arises. He cheated on his first wife because he was a POW. He doesn’t know how many houses he has because he was a POW. He doesn’t know how to use a computer because he was a POW. He defends attacks on his healthcare plan by invoking his POW status. It’s frankly disgusting. It cheapens it.
To be honest, I thought the original Obama ad was really lame. But to invoke McCain’s time as a POW as a rebuttal is just pathetic (and I know this response ad wasn’t from McCain, but the idea of it goes to a larger issue).
The Obama ad was just plain dumb. Then again, this “he can’t use a computer because he was a POW” argument is equally stupid. Anybody who can dial on a cell phone and lift it to his ear (as McCain has been seen doing with some frequency) can type on a keyboard. And, frankly, even if he couldn’t type, so what? If quadriplegics can still use a computer, I’m pretty sure McCain could too.
But this whole “he can’t type, that’s why” counterargument is a total non-sequitur. McCain never said he couldn’t type on a computer…he said he didn’t know how, which his POWness has nothing to do with (unless you’re going to retort that the Vietnamese torture resulted in brain damage making him incapable of learning how to use a computer but left him capable of learning everything he needs to know as President, which would be a load of crap but I wouldn’t put it past the McCain campaign to say it). If the real reason he doesn’t use a computer had to do with his injuries, why didn’t he just say so rather than claiming multiple times that he didn’t use one because he didn’t understand HOW?
CEOs may not check their own email, but I’m willing to bet, if no staffers were around, they would know how to do it for themselves. They rely on others by choice, not necessity. So that’s a non-starter too.
Basically, what we have here is yet another elaborate contortion of facts and common sense by the McCain campaign to try to claim moral outrage because “Obama is dishonoring McCain’s service!” when, in fact, McCain’s service has nothing to do with anything being discussed. (For a man who claims not to use his POWness for personal advancement, he sure does like to use his POWness for personal advancement, doesn’t he?) And another faux outrage meme is born (ala “OMG HE LIEK CALLED TEH WOMAN-LADY A PIG!!! OMG SEXISM!!!”), and makes the Republicans look ridiculous yet again. I take it we can expect yet another round of flat-out lying ads from the Straight Talk Express?
Sigh. They call it the silly season for a reason.
If John McCain is such a “maverick”, then he knows how to develop a way to work a computer. I teach disabled children, and they all are capable of and do work the computer.
I always know I have hit a nerve with a post when all the liberals who read the blog respond with outrage.
Kat, please back statements like this up:
“claiming multiple times that he didn’t use one because he didn’t understand HOW” I have never seen him state this once let alone multiple times.
And take it from an IT guy, there are alot of powerful CEOs out there who could not figure out their email without help from a tech person.
Yes, McCain could figure out how to read email with a special process or device but, it would not be worth his time. Everything is about priorities and proper use of time. I don’t believe checking ones own email is a top priority for the President of the US nor should he waste his time on it if it is difficult for him to do with his war injuries.
Also, the statement about him not being able to type due to his injuries is from 2000, he didn’t just fabricate it now as a defense like Evan or Kat would like the public to believe.
Ummmm, I’d have the public believe no such thing. I made no reference to a time frame because when he said it is irrelevant.
The fact that McCain invoked his POWness to defend himself against not knowing how to use a computer in 2000 in no way refutes my point. If anything it reinforces it because it shows that his willingness to hide behind his POW status to deflect criticism is anything but a recent phenomenon (it just seems to have gotten more outlandish as of late).
Whether he did it in 2000 or last week, it doesn’t change the fact that his and his campaign’s repeated exploitation of his POW status against attacks cheapens his suffering and sacrifice.
Being physically inhibited is not hiding behind “POWness”, it’s just that. He was injured defending your freedom so it’s not efficient for him to use a computer.
The key here is that this came out in 2000 yet Obama still made fun of him. McCain did not “invoke his POWness” as you said, people who are smart and did a quick search pointed out why McCain doesn’t use email and rebutted Obama’s attacks (the video in the post is not from the McCain campaign as I stated, it is from another website).
It’s as simple as that. Obama should have done a little research before throwing stones at a hero.
This is such nonsense.
Not being able to lift one’s arms above one’s shoulders does not in any realistic way prevent someone from learning how to use a computer. It’s simply a ridiculous argument meant to distract.
McCain can only dip into the POW well so many times before it dries up. But, hey, if he wants to become the next Giuliani, more power to him.
Brandon,
What percentage of Fortune 500 CEOs would you say don’t know how to use a computer? Based on experience, I’d put the number below 10%. Anecdotal evidence, I know, but the CEO of my Fortune 500 firm is attached to his Blackberry and personally responds to e-mails. Granted, the e-mails are filtered by staff, but the guy is tech-savvy. Same is true for leaders of other large companies with which I’m familiar.
I guess I just don’t buy the comparison with CEOs. I just don’t. Perhaps there are a few real, real old-school guys who don’t know how to use a computer, but my educated assumption is that they are in the vast minority. And if they were computer illiterate, I don’t think they’d admit it in an interview, or to their shareholders, for fear of the backlash that has hit McCain for his statement.
To say nothing of the cheap POW line, but that’s not my point.
C’mon, there are countless adaptations that help people with disabilities use computers. Heck, even Adobe Acrobat will read documents for the visually impaired.
Here’s a question, Brandon…how exactly do you expect me to back up my statements if you’re just going to delete the post wherein I do just that? Or did you delete it because I pointed out the total hypocrisy of your sudden moral indignation about “attacking veterans” in light of you and your buddies’ perfect willingness to attack another veteran and war hero, John Kerry, four years ago?
If you can’t beat ‘em, delete ‘em. And they say that the GOP is the party of courage…
Kat-
I apologize if the spam filter or something else caught your post, I have not deleted it. Please feel free to post it again. I am always open to discussion and debate.
As for all the comments about adaptations for McCain to use a computer, they all take lots of TIME to use. McCain’s time is extremely limited, it’s just not efficient for him to spend time using a bunch of special tools to check his email when he has perfectly able staffers to go through and filter it fully for him (just like fortune 500 CEOs do).
My bad. I did not realize that McCain has not had a spare couple of hours in the past 10 years to figure out how to use a computer.
I am sure family came first for those “couple of hours” Jane. He may have learned just for fun in a couple hours but, as I said before, computer use is not efficient for him due to his war injuries.
It’s pretty simple really. Sen.Obama (or his staff) didn’t do their research and attacked a POW for not wasting an undue amount of time computing when it’s not efficient for him.
So, here’s take two of my mysteriously disappeared post.
Brandon:
McCain calls himself “computer illiterate”– http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4rpamTKMlKw
McCain commenting “I am learning to get online myself”– http://www.nytimes.com/2008/07.....0V8N+NofGQ
It’s that second link that demolishes your argument. McCain admits that he is now learning HOW to use computers/Internet by himself, which is a flat-out concession that he (a) can use a computer and type for himself if he cares to, so the injuries issue is a nonstarter, and (b) didn’t know HOW to use a computer before, hence his comments that he is now learning.
Ergo, it is clear that McCain was indeed computer illiterate (lacking in know-how, not physical abilities) until it became an embarrassment for his campaign…whereupon he started getting tutored. (And the fact that McCain and his campaign haven’t been using the “I’m injured” excuse is telling–given that they have never hesitated to use the POW get-out-of-gaffe-free card before, no matter how irrelevant to the gaffe at hand, and given that McCain is a smart enough politician to know that such a line of argument would have killed the whole embarrassing story in an instant, one has to conclude that the campaign would have used that defense if it had even the slightest bit of relevance to it.)
Finally, I’m frankly surprised to see you, Brandon, suddenly caring so deeply about outrages to veterans. Where were you when your buddies were slandering John Kerry’s service in 2004? Where were you when your party was walking around with purple heart bandaids? And where were you when a bunch of Milwaukee area Republicans waved flip-flops and tried to shout down Kerry’s speech in Milwaukee?
Oh, that’s right. You were one of the ones waving flip-flops and shouting. With a bullhorn, as I recall. Where was your immense respect for veterans and their service then, exactly?
You are a hypocrite, and your outrage is completely phony. But belated, overwrought deference is better than none, I suppose.
Kat-
1. No one tried to shout down John Kerry’s speech when I was there. There were people outside his speech disagreeing with his rhetoric, even showing it by wearing flip flops but, no one entered and tried to shout down his speech like the Code Pinkos who are closer to your ideology. There is nothing disrespectful about that.
2. I respect every veteran, I can still disagree with them. I never wore the band-aids that you mentioned nor have I even heard of them, was that something you picked up on some far left blog?
3. I have said it many times in these comments and your angry responses have not countered it one bit, McCain may be able to struggle through computer use with his injuries but, it is not efficient for him to do so.
I would prefer my future president operate in the most efficient manner possible and if that means letting someone else read his email I fully respect that.
Brandon, I reponded to the “points” you made, but once again, the post never appeared. That makes the third time–and this time, the post did indeed show up but has since disappeared. I am finding it increasingly hard to believe that a “spam filter” is to blame here.
And, by the by, remind me to reintroduce you to my maternal grandfather sometime. He has a similar problem to Mr. McCain…his shoulder socket is fused, giving him an extremely limited range of motion with his arms. At his fastest, he types maybe 20 words a minute.
He has typed several (unpublished) novels on a typewriter, and has since transistioned to a computer. He uses the computer unaided and without any “handicap devices.” He checks his own email. He reads blogs online. He even blogs himself!
And he’s eight years older than McCain to boot–AND a veteran.
So while I refind the links I used in my mysteriously vanished rebuttal, chew on that for a bit.