Yeah, Right, Whatever

Senator Obama has told us that he's pulling off the gloves (for the 4th? time) in the presidential race. Fine. Cool. Whatever. Ya do what ya gotta do, right? First punch is an ad, pointing out that McCain is "stuck in the 80s" because he doesn't use the internet or know how to e-mail.

Ouch, right? Score, a direct hit, right? You'd think so, until you spend a while doing some research. And to clarify, when I say "a while," I mean about 5 minutes... TOPS.

What am I talking about? Well, several people did the job the researchers don't want, obviously. Here's what they found:

McCain's severe war injuries prevent him from combing his hair, typing on a keyboard, or tying his shoes.

Probably hard to type out a keyboard if you can't use a keyboard, no?

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. 

So, he likes e-mail... he just can't type it himself. Because of his injuries. Yeah... that's a drawback, there, Barry. 

How about this one?

At 63, he is the oldest of the bunch and because of his war injuries, he is limited in his ability to wield a keyboard. But McCain's job as chairman of the Senate commerce committee forced him to learn about the Internet early on, and young Web entrepreneurs such as Jerry Yang and Jeff Bezos fascinate him.

hmmm... he learned about the internet early on... but he can't wield a keyboard.  Because of his injuries.

Care to try one more? No problem.

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 blog first, before anything else. 

So... as of eary July of this year, he was getting that whole inter-web-net-tube thing down pat. He just can't do much online... because of his injuries. 

If you look at the dates of those articles, only one is from this year. It seems that years ago... before many seasoned citizens got around to learning how to use e-mail, Senator McCain and his wife were using it regularly.

Oh, yeah... that definitely sounds like he's out of touch. No, really.

Senator Obama... at the end of the ad, you say that you approve of the message. For that, alone, you are a jerk.