Comments on: McCain’s Disturbing Internet Ignorance

By: Donklephant » Blog Archive » Obama’s New Ad About McCain Is Hacky

Fri, 12 Sep 2008 17:30:30 +0000

[...] pretty widely known that McCain is nearly computer illiterate, and that’s a troubling notion in and of itself. And with the technological challenges [...]

By: Everybody’s Doing It (Or Getting Others To Do It For Them) « Melissa’s Musings

Mon, 28 Jul 2008 14:53:28 +0000

[...] 2.0 skills (and web 1.0 skills, come to thinkÂ of it)Â have been the subject of abundantÂ jokes, criticism, and general disbelief. An account of the New York Times story has received almost 1,500 diggsÂ and [...]

By: Alan Stewart Carl

Alan Stewart Carl — Wed, 16 Jul 2008 22:14:39 +0000

Here’s a link: from Politico that confirms the facts of my post. He does NOT use a blackberry and his staff logs onto website for him — so while he may read web pages, other people are loading them on the computer.

The article also notes that he admited to Internet illiteracy last January.

I maintain my position that the leader of the free world needs more than a passing understanding of the Internet. That doesn’t mean I’m not considering voting for him. It’s just a concern with noting.

By: Alan Stewart Carl

Alan Stewart Carl — Wed, 16 Jul 2008 22:06:21 +0000

Dan — If he was joking with the NYTimes, the NYTimes failed to note that or clarify. If you have links showing that McCain is indeed a computer savvy fellow, I’d be glad to retract.

Plus, fyi, I’m not an Obama supporter — so it may make two of us who have some facts wrong.

By: Dan

Dan — Wed, 16 Jul 2008 21:31:06 +0000

Mccain goes on the internet. He goes to politico, realclearpolitics all the time.

McCain was joking with the reporter. People need to get a life.

McCain uses a blackberry.

I don’t know how much more I can take of this stupid campaign against McCain.

McCain isn’t going to win so you can stop taking him out of context.

Enough you can have Obama as King you win.

Bill Clinton doesn’t use e-mail or blackberry.

The president can’t even use e-mail for security reasons.

Obama doesn’t even know what a widget is.

Obama has no technology experience.

Enough already.

By: rusty075

rusty075 — Wed, 16 Jul 2008 19:48:09 +0000

Iâ€™m not all that bother by the social aspects of his i-illiteracy. Yes, it would be kind of sad that the leader of the free world has to have his email printed out so he can read it, but I could get over it. I’m not expecting either presidential candidate to spend their afternoons cruising Facebook from the Oval Office.

What troubles me more is the policy implications of it. In the next 4 years the president is likely to have to deal with a range of internet-related public policy issues: Net Neutrality, Online Privacy, Internet Taxation, Online Free Speech, Online Child Protection, etc, etc. And those are just the ones off the top of headâ€¦you could probably come up with a dozen more. Having no firsthand knowledge of a topic makes the president completely dependent upon his circle of advisors. Whatever his advisorsâ€™ opinion of the topic is will likely become the presidentâ€™s opinion. And given that even during the campaign McCainâ€™s ear is heavily bent by industry lobbists, I can only imagine that as president that trend will continue. A president that has experienced the internet from a userâ€™s perspective will have a more well-rounded understanding.