John McCain and the Internets

EDITED: Monday morning at 9:30am

Let me make something clear right from the get-go.

John McCain is an American hero. What he, and over 700 Vietnam POW's went through, is nothing short of heroic. Our nation owes them a debt that can never be repaid.

But is McCain qualified to be president?

There's mounting evidence that he's not.

Just the other day McCain jumped in his Time Machine and took us all on a trip back to 1993 when there was still a country named Czechoslovakia.

Everybody slips up now and then; but it looks like McCain is trying to outdo Dubya when it comes to malapropisms and foot-in-mouth disease.

And now, tonight, the AP has a story about John McCain's aversion to the Internet.

NEW YORK (AP) — If Sen. John McCain is really serious about becoming a Web-savvy citizen, perhaps Kathryn Robinson can help.

Robinson is now 106 — that's 35 years older than McCain — and she began using the Internet at 98, at the Barclay Friends home in West Chester, Pa., where she lives. "I started to learn because I wanted to e-mail my family," she says — in an e-mail message, naturally

Turns out that McCain doesn't use a computer or e-mail.

To me, that's chilling and frightening proof that John McCain is a carbon copy of George Bush.

We've just endured eight years of Bush's "bunker mentality." The damage his style of leadership and chronic stupidity has done to our country and our image abroad will take decades to repair.

Do we really need another president who has no curiosity about the rest of the world or anything that's going on in it?

How bad is McCain's "cyber disconnect?"

Here's part of an interview McCain gave the New York Times on July 11.

Q: What websites if any do you look at regularly?

Mr. McCain: [Press secretary] Brooke [Buchanan] and [adviser] Mark [Salter] show me Drudge, obviously, everybody watches, for better or for worse, Drudge. Sometimes I look at Politico. Sometimes RealPolitics, sometimes.

(Mrs. McCain and Ms. Buchanan both interject: “Meagan’s blog!”)

Mr. McCain: Excuse me, Meagan’s blog. And we also look at the blogs from Michael and from you that may not be in the newspaper, that are just part of your blog.

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

Mark Salter: He uses a BlackBerry, just ours.

Mr. McCain: I use the Blackberry, but I don’t e-mail, I’ve never felt the particular need to e-mail. I read e-mails all the time, but the communications that I have with my friends and staff are oral and done with my cell phone. I have the luxury of being in contact with them literally all the time. We now have a phone on the plane that is usable on the plane, so I just never really felt a need to do it. But I do – could I just say, really – I understand the impact of blogs on American politics today and political campaigns. I understand that. And I understand that something appears on one blog, can ricochet all around and get into the evening news, the front page of The New York Times. So, I do pay attention to the blogs. And I am not in any way unappreciative of the impact that they have on entire campaigns and world opinion.

Now that's scary. Here's an allegedly intelligent 71 year-old man who aspires to be the leader of the most powerful nation in the world and he's admitting that he has to have other adults look up websites for him.

But he is learning. Better late than never!

Is the fact that McCain is computer illiterate enough to disqualify him from becoming president?

No...if that was his only drawback, which it isn't.

The fact that he hasn't taken the time to learn basic computer skills since the inception of the Internet is very telling.

But I really don't need any more reasons why he's all wrong.

But in the months ahead I'm sure John McCain-without too much prompting-is going continue to supply more proof and demonstrate even more vividly why he's not qualified to be president.