Sigh...John McCain really doesn't know how to get on the internet.

[dkf]

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.

Q: Do you use a blackberry or email?

Mr. McCain: No

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/07/13/us/politics/13text-mccain.html?_r=3&oref=slogin&pagewanted=print&oref=slogin&oref=slogin

http://www.eschatonblog.com/

I was hoping it was a joke.

[MonkeyFunk]

1. I don't understand why so many here make a big deal out of that

it's not like the President doesn't have people to open his email attachments.

[Hugabear]

3. Because it shows just how out of touch he is with most Americans

Remember when Bush was amazed by grocery store scanning technology? The very same technology that most of us see each and every week? It's pretty much the same thing.

[Benhurst]

16. The change over to grocery store scanning took place while

GHW Bush was vice-president. Our presidents and vice presidents live in security bubbles and are quite isolated from the day to day lives lived by their fellow citizens. While I find it ironic to be placed in this position as anti-Bush as I am, I think the press was not fair to him about having been so isolated from the changes which took place while he was in office.

Assuming Obama is elected, how much shopping do you think he and Michelle will be doing in the next four to eight years? If they want a snack, don't expect them to be driving over to the nearest Giant for a Twinkie, or driving anywhere themselves at all, for that matter.

The president and vice present have become severely isolated for security reasons, and that is a problem in itself, but one for which there is no easy solution.

[Lasher]

32. Junior didn't know gas was $4.00 a gallon until a reporter asked for his thoughts about it.

Regardless of the isolation imposed by serving as president, that's a glaring example of being extremely out of touch. The press has been much more than fair with him.

[Benhurst]

34. Yeah, I'm surprised he didn't notice the price of gas when he filled

up at the 7-11. And I doubt if he or any of his predecessors (with the unlikely but possible exception of Jimmy Carter) has even the vaguest idea how many miles per gallon that tank disguised as a limousine he is driven around in gets.

The presidents are isolated. And Obama will be so as well, assuming he is elected.

The press has disgracefully protected Bush when it comes to his war crimes; but typically it goes after him over silly matters over which he, nor any other president, has control. It's a way of showing just how "independent" they are.

How many average Joes have EVERYTHING done for them, and on a daily basis have people rise and clap whenever they enter a room? Well that is the way our presidents live, and, to say the least, it is not a healthy environment. Given the White House bubble the presidents have lived in for the last fifty years or so, it's a wonder most of them haven't gone mad.

[Oeditpus Rex]

49. Isolated or not

don't you think the cost of a gallon of gas or a loaf of bread or a mortgage are the kind of things a president should know so he'd/she'd have an idea of what We, The People are up against — or, at the very least, to give the appearance of having an idea?

[orleans]

35. okay. so what's mccramps excuse for not being able to double click

the left side of a mouse over an icon that says "internet" and then typing in "google.com" and doing a word search?

he's "learning" how to get on the internet? my god! what a fucking idiot! how long does it take to "learn" how to left click a damn icon?

[dems_rightnow]

43. Except the grocery scanner deal wasn't real

http://www.snopes.com/history/american/bushscan.asp

[dysfunctional press]

55. maybe, maybe not...the snopes piece isn't very definitive...

i seem to remember seeing some clips of it on the news, and he certainly did seem unfamiliar with it all.

the 'debunking' snopes includes consists primarily of the comments of poppy's cronies saying that 'of course he's familiar with the technology'...:eyes:

[dkf]

He's helpless.

When you can't do things like this for yourself, you're dependent and not really in charge.

McCain is going to be even more clueless than W. We can't afford him as President.

[MonkeyFunk]

7. I agree

but I don't think whether he uses a computer or not matters. I'm not sure what people imagine the job of President entails, but it's not making Powerpoint presentations.

[dkf]

12. I'm talking about being able to get information for yourself.

That's what I use the internet for, and that is what my boss, my Dad and my Mom are dependent on me for.

And when I get stuff for them, I can filter out what I think is important or not.

[MonkeyFunk]

14. I would certainly hope no President relies on the internet

to get good information.

Have you read it lately?

[dkf]

19. When you read enough, you can figure out what is good or bad info.

[MonkeyFunk]

21. A quick glance around this very forum

will quickly disprove that notion.

[dkf]

26. I'm not talking about message boards...

I'm talking about trying to research a topic.

[MonkeyFunk]

27. oh come on now

the President doesn't do his own research on the internet. That's just silly.

First, he has staff to do research. And second, he has access to pretty much any book or periodical in the world. And if he wants anyone's insight or opinion? He picks up the phone. People take his calls.

The internet isn't the end-all and be-all of information.

[dkf]

31. I'm not talking about when he's President.

I'm talking about all these past years.

And like I said, I know what it is like to assist someone who can't look stuff up on their own. I just think its a sad thing when the assistant knows more than the person in charge.

[orleans]

36. i would also hope no president is stupid enough not to know how to

"get on" the internet.

what a fucking idiot he is (along with that fuckhead sleeping in the white house)

[sandnsea]

10. Lack Of Intellectual Curiosity

Which we already have in the White House. I know 90 year olds who go online every day.

[MonkeyFunk]

11. And I know 40 year olds that don't.

Doesn't mean much of anything. There are plenty of reasons to oppose McCain - this just strikes me as a pointless one.

Anybody can claim that people who aren't interested in the things they are suffer from a lack of intellectual curiosity. And I don't think using a computer is a sign that someone intellectually curious.

[dkf]

17. Anyone who tries can figure out how to move around on the internet.

Its only people who give up because they don't feel up to the challenge who can't.

And there are people out there who don't really need to know what is going on in this world. But the President of the United States does not fall into this category.

[MonkeyFunk]

18. I think it's silly to think the President of the United States

can't know what's going on in the world without the internet.

I know lots of people who are avid computer users who know less about what's going in the world than somebody with a subscription to Newsweek.

[dkf]

20. John McCain doesn't seem to know the difference between Sunni and Shia.

That scares me.

Frankly, I think he's a bit of a boob.

[MonkeyFunk]

23. Yes, he is a bit of a boob

but using a computer won't make him any less of a boob.

[dkf]

25. You think he has a memory problem?

Otherwise, I do think reading a few articles may help him.

[Buns_of_Fire]

46. But it WOULD, at least, make him an ONLINE boob.

Just like...

Uh...

Me. :yoiks:

[Benhurst]

22. I agree. We might be surprised how many of our Congressional leaders

are in a similar position. Many elected to Congress before 1990 or so, probably haven't bothered learning to use the internet. Believe it or not, most members of congress do not tend to their own mail or do their own research on the Internet or otherwise. As for those more recently elected, they probably learned computer skills while rising from the ranks of government and the private sector.

[jobycom]

2. "I will have that down very soon..."

Like, clicking on the blue E or orange world takes more than a second or two of instruction? "Okay, Senator, now, put your hand on the mouse. That grey thing, yes. No, sir, you're right, it doesn't squeak, very clever sir. No, I don't hear that as often as you might think. Okay, now, move the mouse. Move... No, senator, I mean, just... Now, sir, you have to put it back on the desk to move it. Not off the desk. Okay, now look at the screen and put the pointer over the that blue icon. Sorry, you're right, my fault. The pointer is that little arrow... Yes sir, seemed obvious to me, too. Now, an icon... No, sir, not that kind of icon. Yes, sir, I suppose Reagan is an icon of sorts for some people, but not that kind of icon. Anyway, what's that? Yes, you move the mouse... Yes, that's right, sir, very good, moving the mouse does move the pointer. We are making real progress, sir, I was afraid you would be slow... I mean, not as fast as... Yes sir, sorry sir, didn't mean to imply you were slow, that was my fault. Yes sir, I've heard about your war record. Now if you'll click... No, I really can't imagine what it's like to be a prisoner of war, sir. Now, if you'll click... No, sir, you are right, kids these days don't know what that means. Well, maybe those in Iraq do. Ha ha. No, sir, that wasn't supposed to mean anything. No, sir, it wasn't meant to be a criticism, I was just trying to relate... Yes sir, I'm sorry, now, back... It won't happen again, sir, there's no need to raise your vo... Sir, I don't think that kind of language gets us where we are trying to go... Well, now that you ask, yes sir, I am voting for Obama, but that shouldn't matter... Sir, if you'll just click... Oh, come on, sir, there's no reason to get them involved. No, sir, I'd rather not spend the next six years at Guanta... Yes, sir, maybe you should find someone who relates to you better, sir. You were very close, though, very close to getting online, sir. I'm sure in a week or tw... No, you don't have to pay me, just please, ask the men with the sunglasses to move away from the door...

[Angela Shelley]

6. Thanks jobycom,

:yourock:

[jobycom]

13. Thanks. Didn't think anyone would even read it.

:)

[NattPang]

15. That was so funny!

:rofl:

[dkf]

24. I'd laugh, but I'm teaching my Dad how to get his baseball games on the internet.

And it kind of feels like this.

Poor Dad.

He's trying. Unfortunately, every day is a little bit of a different twist to get on so he can't figure it out yet.

[mwb970]

40. I showed my elderly parents how to work the computer over and over and over.

They never did get it.

[Grey]

28. You absolutely nailed it. n/t

[MonkeyFunk]

30. Heheh...

you should've heard the phone conversation I had with my father when he first got a computer.

Double-clicking took up a good 20 minutes.

[annabanana]

38. ! - perfect - !

(rolling around here)

[Ichingcarpenter]

53. My Dad is 93 and uses the internet- you nailed it

Although, not a lot, just for messages when he and his wife travel.
He started learning when he was 89.

It didn't take him an hour to learn but he' s not John McCain either.
He's smarter.

[ChimpersMcSmirkers]

4. Isn't he the same noob who said we can all get jobs selling sh*t on Ebay?

[realisticphish]

5. well, he's old

not to be harsh, but a large percentage of people his age just aren't computer literate. Of course there are many exceptions, but his generation didn't grow up with computers and other electronic technology like mine did.

[Richardo]

9. Age has nothing to do with it...he's either lazy, indifferent and/or just out of touch...

My dad (76) and father-in-law (77) both burn up the internets and although both are engineers, neither had the technological training McCain did as a naval aviator. He's obviously got the ability, so what else is there?

[Benhurst]

29. Don't discount how many people our congressmen and senators

have working for them, taking care of their mail and doing their research.

Back in the days before the Internet, which wasn't all that long ago, Congressional aides with the help of the Library of Congress fulfilled that function. And I hope, to a large extent, they still are. It is one thing to wade through all the raw material on the Internet on your own, and quite another to have an aide with the help of specialists at the Library of Congress do it for you. Given the superior resources available to members of congress, I would prefer they take advantage of them and not rely upon doing their own research.

[realisticphish]

33. again, there are many exceptions

but the furthest extent of computer training he would have had as a pilot would have been punch cards, at best.

I think we need to be careful not to assume he doesn't know the tech stuff because he's lazy, etc. Just because he's a conservative doesn't mean he's willfully backwards or unintelligent (well, in regards to tech at least). He's from a different generation, one that did not have the same technological advances that ours have had. That doesn't necessarily excuse him from at least being able to function, but I know plenty of that generation who rarely if ever use a computer at all. I won't attack someone for something that has perfectly reasonable explanations, I'll attack him for his policies. I couldn't care less that he can't use a computer. He's losing an election, not fixing my laptop

[Richardo]

54. hear hear

:patriot:

I would only add that even if he doesn't use it, he should be conversant in it, and understand the issues that come with it, like net neutrality, ISPs handling personal information, IP addresses, identity theft etc.

[ihavenobias]

8. McCain Supporter - 'John McCain Is Aware Of The Internet'

(Video)

[ashling]

37. Does he know how to flush the toilet?

"The answer, my friends, to outdated infrastructure is to not flush the toilet."

:rofl:

[mwb970]

39. This is simply unbelievable.

I had an e-mail account in 1983, for God's sake. The idea that in 2008 a major-party presidential candidate would say "I am learning to get online myself, and I will have that down fairly soon" is jaw-droppingly amazing.

By the way, just what does mcCain think is involved in this "getting online" he speaks of? He acts like you have to take a 6-week course and get certified by Microsoft or something. Doesn't one "get online" by sitting down at the computer and double-clicking the Internet Explorer icon? How long can it possibly take mcCain to learn that?

Thinking about this some more, this means that mcCain doesn't really know what a blog is, or a forum, or an online poll, or any of the other things that we all have known so well for years if not decades. You could not have a better example of being totally, completely out of touch than this. My God! What a loser.

[HereSince1628]

42. Well, you were clearly in at the beginning...

Were you with NASA or MILnet?

[mwb970]

48. Something less dramatic: libraries.

There was an outfit at that time called The Source (later bought by Reader's Digest) that had a proprietary network interconnecting several hundred libraries. Since the place I worked was a library consortium, we got a lot of e-mail accounts on the Source system, one of which was mine. (I was SLS049, with SLS standing for "Source Library Services".)

I used the e-mail account throughout 1983 to communicate back and forth with a librarian in another state who later became my wife!

[noel711]

41. Why do you hate our freedoms so much...

that you would make fun of a war hero, who was in captivity for years,
and suffered so we could have the internets?
Why do you hate liberty that you make fun of our
next heroic, brave, gentle, avuncular couragous war hero next president?

After all, it isn't knowledge of the internet that makes a president,
it isn't what he knows, but how he acts under duress....
Oh, people, have you no shame??
(sarcasm alert) (When I hear this chorus sung from the conservatives,
I wanna break into that old Bert Lahr song from the "Wizard of Oz" called "Courage"..
Dorothy: Your Majesty, If you were King, you wouldn't be afraid of anything?
Lion: Not nobody, not nohow!
Tin Man: Not even a rhinocerous?
Lion: Imposserous!
Dorothy: How about a hippopotamus?
Lion: Why, I'd trash him from top to bottomamus!
Dorothy: Supposin' you met an elephant?
Lion :I'd wrap him up in cellophant!
Scarecrow :What if it were a brontosaurus?
Lion: I'd show him who was King of the Forest!
All Four: How?
Lion: How?Courage! What makes a King out of a slave?
Courage! What makes the flag on the mast to wave?
Courage! What makes the elephant charge his tusk, in the misty mist or the dusky dusk?
What makes the muskrat guard his musk? Courage!
What makes the sphinx the seventh wonder? Courage!
What makes the dawn come up like thunder? Courage!
What makes the Hottentot so hot? What puts the "ape" in apricot?
What have they got that I ain't got?
All Four: Courage!
Lion : Then you can say that again!

[ileus]

44. Old turd shouldn't even be in the running. wth?

It's like going back in time to the 80's....

[ileus]

45. wonder if he calls a PC..."email box"

[peekaloo]

47. Give Ted Stevens a call. He'll learn ya.

"getting on myself"

:rofl:

[Vickers]

50. C'mon, give the guy a break...

...he's getting wi-fi access in the outhouse.

[exothermic]

51. I've heard that there are grownups who can't even program a VCR!

;-)

[TexasObserver]

52. Dagnabbit!! Them damn intertubes are complicated!!

McCain prefers chisling stone tablets to communicate.

That, and a series of clicks and grunts understood only by his clan members.

[dysfunctional press]

56. so what...?

at his age i don't find it to be too big a deal. it's fine for the seniors who DO enjoy the net- but i don't really have any problem with seniors who don't. some are obviously intimidated by it, and others have lived their whole lives without it, and are completely happy the way they are, and don't really feel any need or desire to explore it.
to each his own.

[BlueManDude]

57. This, of course, will be hailed as a great virtue by many in the media.

tuff old bird refuses to bend to those modern thingamabobs.

[NC_Nurse]

58. There are a LOT of things he seems to know nothing about. Scary, isn't it?

Especially since he's been a Senator for so long.

[napi21]

59. It's actually worse that a Senator is technology illiterate that if a

President is. To do a good job in the Senate, I would think they should be able to verify what they've been told as beinbg true or not. It would also help a lot to be able to read exactly what their constituents are saying. A President has so many aides waiting on him all the time, going on the net is just not necessary.

[MonkeyFunk]

60. Senators have plenty of aides

And I'm sure they all hear what the constituents are saying - rolled up and summarized by aides. I bet no Senator "checks his constitutent email" every morning when he gets into work by firing up Outlook.

As to finding out what's true or not, I have no reason to believe the internet is a better tool for that than anything it replaced.