I've always known that John McCain was an old man but this is the first I've heard that he doesn't know how to use a computer. Really? I mean, I realize he's a US Senator with a staff doing most of his work for him but, really? From Matt Yglesias, in reaction to the fact that while McCain doesn't use a computer, he's still (apparently) aware of them and the Internet too, for that matter:
I dunno. Do you have to use a computer to understand how it shapes the country? I think you might. If we had a president who didn't know how to drive a car, that would probably strike us as pretty odd. But I think you could plausibly claim that you don't necessarily have to have a driver's license in order to understand how automobiles shape the country. But that's because we assume that even someone who doesn't have a license has still been in cars sees highways, onramps and offramps, parking lots, quiet winding roads, overpasses, bridges, etc. If you hadn't done any of that stuff, then I think it really would be difficult to understand the implications of the technology.Look, my mom (a very smart lady) barely knows how to use a computer, or the Internet, for that matter; I love her to death but I don't think she should be the president of the United States. Per Matt's argument, I highly doubt that McCain has been spending much time looking over the shoulders of young staffers to get even an idea of how computers have shaped our country over the past several decades. This is just the latest of the many generational differences this election has highlighted between the two candidates, but on a much larger scale: it's the 21st century; do you want a leader who is so intellectually incurious and disconnected from everyday life that he has never even used a personal computer? The mind staggers...
7 comments:
Did you watch the original video? (I didn't.) Do we know what level it is that he doesn't understand? I'll give the guy a break when it comes to turning them on and off. But if he doesn't know how to use Google... well... part of me is disgusted and part of me is a little jealous.
From everything I've read about this story it does indeed seem to be the latter. And I agree with you on both counts; I love the Internet but it has a hold on me like no other technology has ever accomplished.
I'm an Obama supporter, but I do wish political discourse (and jokes) about McCain would focus less on his age, just as I wished pundits had focused less on Clinton's gender. There are lots of reasons not to vote for John McCain. Age is not one of them.
McCain's ignorance of computers has less to do with his age than with his level of privilege and his priorities. Yes, it's true, he comes from a generation of men who never learned to type because it was women's work and not so many years ago, a computer was seen as not much more than a glorified typewriter. But that's beside the point here.
There are all sorts of things you can be informed about without actually participating in them, and no one has the time to participate in everything that shapes the country and the world. A couple of other examples of world-shaping forces no current candidate for office has hands-on experience with: the oil industry (a lot of good the current occupant's direct experience in that industry has done us)and the stock market. What president has ever bought and sold his own stocks rather than having a financial adviser do it for him?
I agree that most candidates for president are out of touch with everyday people for the most part, but McCain is running to be the oldest president ever; that's a legitimate point of discussion.
And he's admitted that he doesn't know how to use a computer; as an old man it's no big deal but as a United States senator and presidential candidate I think that it is.
I'm not saying that he should be able to program HTML or Linux but the gist of this story is that he doesn't know how to use email. I think we all remember (rather comically) Senator Ted Stevens referring to the Internet as a system of tubes that get clogged up with too much email sometimes.
The man actually visualizes the Internet in terms of pneumatic tubes! Again, not a big deal for your average old man but this guy is the head of the committee regulating the Internet. Sometimes age matters and I don't consider it discriminatory or unfair to point that out.
Easy there big fella! Let's not go knocking Uncle Ted. Just because he's going to out-Strom Strom, why you gotta be hatin'?
Don't worry, I think there's a good chance he's gonna lose to Anchorage's current mayor, Mark Begich (D). Please let it be true, whilst he did bring home the bacon (aka pork) to the BIGGEST STATE IN THE UNION (by a factor of 2), he's now embarrassing Alaska.
All this reminds me of a comment heard a long time ago.( I believe it was originaly made about Ronald Reagan but could just as easily be applied to John McCain.) "Jeez this guy is old! Seventy-one and he would have his finger on THE BUTTON. MY grandpa is seventy-one and we don't even let him touch the remote control."
Doesn't surprise me that Stevens is on the way out; he's become increasingly curmudgeonly during his rants from the Senate floor and I also hear he's having tax "issues"...
And I'm not so much concerned with the shakiness of McCain's finger on the button as I am with his obvious enthusiasm for using it (read: button=launching the armed forces).
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