Just to confirm what Frodo has said with a cite:
http://www.boston.com/news/nation/articles/2008/09/14/obama_ad_takes_heat_for_mccain_cyber_shot/
So let’s put that particular bunch of crap to bed right now, MKay?
(This is where Dr. Deth comes in and says “wow guys, you were right. Thanks for fighting my ignorance.”)
There’s a first time for everything, I guess.
McCain incident 1: “I keep shredding these embarrassing emails but they won’t go away!”
McCain incident 2: Writes a secret email about how his administration is going to purge the Justice Department of Democrats and accidentally sends it “Reply To All.” Everybody in the Department of Justice receives a copy.
McCain incident 3: “I just need to drag these super-top-secret emails to the Trash folder, right?”
Or, this
http://groups.google.com/group/alt.war.vietnam/browse_thread/thread/8b768235f85f14a5/7ceeb60f615b8451
" The
reason he doesn’t send email is that he can’t use a keyboard because
of the relentless beatings he received from the Viet Cong in service
to our country. From the Boston Globe (March 4, 2000):
McCain gets emotional at the mention of military families needing food
stamps or veterans lacking health care. The outrage comes from
inside: McCain’s severe war injuries prevent him from combing his
hair, typing on a keyboard, or tying his shoes. "
http://blogs.abcnews.com/politicalpunch/2008/09/why-doesnt-mcca.html
"*McCain did once describe himself as computer “illiterate” and dependent upon his wife for computer assistance, but there’s more to the tale than that.
Assuredly McCain isn’t comfortable talking about this – and the McCain campaign discouraged me from writing about this – but the reason the aged Arizonan doesn’t use a computer or send e-mail is because of his war wounds.
I realize some of the nastier liberals in the blogosphere will see this as McCain once again “playing the POW card,” but it’s simply a fact: typing on a regular keyboard for any sustained period of time bothers McCain physically.
He can type, he occasionally does type, but in general, the injuries he sustained as a POW – ones that make it impossible for him to raise his arms high enough to comb his hair – mean that small tasks make his shoulders ache, so he tries to avoid any repetitive exercise.
Again, it’s not that he can’t type, he just by habit, avoids when he can, repetitive exercise involving his arms. He does if he has to, as with handshaking or autographs."*
http://hoosieraccess.com/blog/2008/09/13/bh-obama-mocks-john-mccains-war-injuries/
Earlier today, Barack Obama’s campaign released an ad attacking John McCain for not knowing how to send an e-mail. Their crack research team apparently never heard of Google or Lexis-Nexis, but Jonah Goldberg does. He discovers why McCain doesn’t use a keyboard — his torturers made sure he couldn’t. The Boston Globe reported it eight years ago:….McCain’s severe war injuries prevent him from combing his hair, typing on a keyboard, or tying his shoes…
I can get you more cites.
It is true that McCain himself, “who has referred to himself as a computer “illiterate,” has never cited his war injuries as the reason why he doesn’t use e-mail or never learned other computer skills.”. McCain also downplays his injuries, thus the fact that McCain himself doesn’t personally use that as a defense does not mean it isn’t true.
In this train-wreck, which was an offshoot from this train-wreck: , Harborwolf offered the following cite, ostensibly to point that:
“McCain suffered broken bones that still prevent him from fully lifting his arms and has lost mobility as a result of fractured fingers.”
However it also states:
“McCain, who has referred to himself as a computer “illiterate,” has never cited his war injuries as the reason why he doesn’t use e-mail or never learned other computer skills.”
Edited to add: Which I see Euphonious Polemic already cited.
Carry on.
By way of mitigation, I was beaten up by a bully in 1975, this sometimes causes me great pain when I try to click on the correct page number in a thread.
… but humility prevents me from talking about that.
His injuries also cause him to support torture, to forget which continent Spain is located in, to divorce his wife, and to invent the Blackberry.
So… he’s too humble, and downplays his injuries, preferring instead that he be thought of as “computer illiterate”.
Gotcha. He’s an idiot.
i insist, the matter is not that MCain has difficulty using a computer for physical reasons, the fact is the man does not know the first thing about computers, a man who does not understand computers has as much place leading a superpower in 2008 as a man who does not know how to write would have in 1608.
No No, Frodo, you have it all wrong.
DrDeth would have you believe that McCain really is physically incapable of using a computer, but instead of simply saying that, LIES his pants off, and says he is actually computer illiterate.
So McCain is not lazy and stupid. He’s a congenital liar.
DrDeth, do you believe MCain knows how to operate a computer but pretends not to?
Going somewhat irrelevant here but I worked for the company that provided Blackberry e-mail service to the senate and I can confirm that McCain had a Blackberry. This does not mean that he created it or even really used it (the only Senator whose staff I ever dealt with directly was Joe Lieberman so I know he used his) but McCain at least had one.
I beleive he can indeed check, read and send an email (but rarely does), but I if “computer literacy” can be compared to reading literacy, he’s at the “reading comics and only with his lips moving” stage, little doubt. But of course he has several excuses: his age, his disability and the fact that he has hordes of people who can do that for him. So, as far as “computer operator” I think he barely gets a D, but that doesn’t mean he doesn’t understand the whole “interweb” and “tubes”
thing. He does have a sense of humor, can be self-depreciating, and doesn’t like to play off his injuries.
OTOH, does the CEO at General Motors need to know how to change sparkplugs?
Does the Commander in Chief need to know how to field strip a M16?
I am planning on voting for Obama, even though he has no military experience. Does his lack of direct military experience disqualify him from being the Commander-in-Cheif in your eyes?
Although doubtless Obama knows more about computers than McCain does, I don’t think he’s a programmer or IT expert either. I’ll bet that if one compared the gaps in Military expereince *and *computer experience between the two, the balance would weigh in McCains favor.
But then, I trust that Obama will pick the best men in the field to give him military advice, so I don’t think he needs to know how to field strip a M16.
Wait… I thought McCain invented the cotton gin?
And can you imagine what’s gonna happen to our government spending when President McCain receives a very distressing Nigerian email from one Dr. Clement Okon.
There is a difference though, if you know how to use a computer, yo can learn the basics about anything by yourself in a few hours, you can see how the world reacts to some event, you are inmensely more open to new ideas and toughts, if you did not know how to read in the past, you were isolated from new toughts and had to depend on intemediaries, just like it is now with computers.
It also means a computer-literate President can get bogged down 14 hours a day in emails, maddeningly difficult online puzzle games, and forum flamewars.
Obama incident 1: “Look, Senator Clinton, I’m not saying I was really burning your dog, it’s just a saying.”
Obama incident 2: “Are you sure I can’t have the Secret Service break that guy’s legs? Did you see what that ignorant fuck called me?”
Obama incident 3: “Instead of signing statements, I will instead indicate my level of approval of a bill by drawing an emoticon beside my signature.”
Obama incident 4: “2010/05/05 The budget for 2010 is still awaiting the president’s signature, when consulted, president Obama was heard to say ‘i’ll get to it once i finish this "#"$ Egyptian Civilization’. Egipt diplomatic protests continue’”
That’s quite a little rhubarb then, isn’t it?