“1982. John McCain goes to Washington. Things have changed in the last 26 years, but McCain hasn’t,” says a voice-over in the ad against shots of a Rubik’s Cube, a disco ball, a massive cell phone and an old computer. “He admits he still doesn’t know how to use a computer, can’t send an e-mail, still doesn’t understand the economy, and favors $200 billion in new tax cuts for corporations, but almost nothing for the middle class. After one president who’s out of the touch, we just can’t afford more of the same.”
Responding to the ad, McCain’s online outreach manager Patrick Hynes shot back: “The ad is a joke. After they hyped it so heavily in The New York Times I can only assume nervous Democrats are embarrassed for the Obama campaign.”
That from the left-leaning “Wired” [1] this morning. Leaving aside the idea that Presidents don’t use such things because of security concerns, there’s a reason that Obama and his minions have forgotten. There’s a range of motion issue [2] with John McCain, involving his POW injuries. Forbes: [3]
In certain ways, McCain was a natural Web candidate. Chairman of the Senate Telecommunications Subcommittee and regarded as the U.S. Senate’s savviest technologist, McCain is an inveterate devotee of email. His nightly ritual is to read his email together with his wife, Cindy. The injuries he incurred as a Vietnam POW make it painful for McCain to type. Instead, he dictates responses that his wife types on a laptop. “She’s a whiz on the keyboard, and I’m so laborious,” McCain admits.
It’s my guess Obama will take a serious hit off this, even from his own supporters, among the disabled. And, so he should. Who, wanting to be President, will mock a former POW for injury suffered in the service of his country? Barack OBama, that’s who. Stay classy, there, Barry… stay classy.