Jonah Goldberg had an a-ha! moment yesterday, which, as most of Jonah’s a-ha! moments go, involved taking something that someone else thought of and putting it on the National Review’s website. In this case, he figures out that John McCain doesn’t use e-mail because he was POWatized way back when.
Yep. The day after 9/11, as part of its “get tough” makeover, the Obama campaign is mocking John McCain for not using a computer, without caring why he doesn’t use a computer. From the AP story about the computer illiterate ad:
“Our economy wouldn’t survive without the Internet, and cyber-security continues to represent one our most serious national security threats,” [Obama spokesman Dan] Pfeiffer said. “It’s extraordinary that someone who wants to be our president and our commander in chief doesn’t know how to send an e-mail.”
Well, I guess it depends on what you mean by “extraordinary.” The reason he doesn’t send email is that he can’t use a keyboard because of the relentless beatings he received from the Viet Cong in service to our country. From the Boston Globe (March 4, 2000):
McCain gets emotional at the mention of military families needing food stamps or veterans lacking health care. The outrage comes from inside: McCain’s severe war injuries prevent him from combing his hair, typing on a keyboard, or tying his shoes. Friends marvel at McCain’s encyclopedic knowledge of sports. He’s an avid fan - Ted Williams is his hero - but he can’t raise his arm above his shoulder to throw a baseball.
In a similar vein I guess it’s an outrage that the blind governor of New York David Paterson doesn’t know how to drive a car. After all, transportation issues are pretty important. How dare he serve as governor while being ignorant of what it’s like to navigate New York’s highways.
Such a scamp! John Cole pretty effectively demolishes the idea the John McCain lacks the facility to use, at the very least, a Blackberry, mainly because he keeps fucking doing it. But one of the oddest parts of the Noun-Verb-POW defense in this case is something that John McCain’s actually referred to on his own website - or would have, if he ever brought up his own military service: