Interesting.

Normally, the McCain camp would respond with false claims of victimhood.

But they can't do so here, because--even though this time they wouldn't be crying wolf--they are desperately afraid of drawing attention to the fact that the old man might drop off and leave Caribou Barbie in charge.

That would be "Governor" Caribou Barbie to you, Poster-child.

McCain can always respond with what Obama did in the '80's...

That's it. I'm not voting for McCain. How are we going to survive if the President doesn't use e-mail or read the internet? Without it, how will he communicate with world leaders? (Phones don't exist anymore, do they?) More importantly, how will he know who LiLo's dating, and how will he get his porn?

I'm not sure what the point of that ad is other than to reinforce the stereotype that Obama's an elitist and further discredit his claim of introducing a "new" kind of politics of "hope" where politicians no longer launch silly attacks on their opponents.

That ad sucks, and I'm an Obama supporter.

Orin, you have a turntable in *your office*???! Whoa. I'm jealous. Do you have LPs there too? Students visiting your office must get flashbacks to their parents' basements.

No, finman, I think there's no doubt that a President who can't use the internet or email in 2008 is pretty much not qualified.

It's like saying we should elect a President who refuses to fly on airplanes but instead prefers to travel by boat. Would you think that's okay? You probably would.

That said, the ad is bad. The oldies are not going to like this ad.

Bruce,

Yeah, I do. Fortunately no student has ever asked, "Hey, what's that?" Not yet anyway.

The oldies are not going to like this ad.

The oldies will never see it if it is a Youtube-only ad.

What was Obama doing in the 80s? Oh right, he was helping community organizations suck on the teat of government more effectively.

Barack Obama didn't bring change to Chicago politics. He bought right into it and never made a peep about the rampant corruption. In fact, he scored a house from his dealings with local slum lord Tony Rezko.

Barack Obama didn't bring change in the IL legislature or the US Senate. He continued to parrot the far left party slogans from day one until a few months ago. He's about as non-partisan as a WWII resistance fighter.

Orin

It won’t help in Florida, though. I guess they are writing that state off.

And for the rest of it, I say its pretty amazing anyone doesn’t use computers these days, but it’s still pretty thin gruel.

And can I ask a dumb question? Does he have the full use of his hands anyway? I mean if his arms are so messed up from the torture he endured he can’t even salute anymore, you have to wonder if his hands function normally. The two don’t automatically follow, but it makes you wonder. Mind you that’s not relevant to the job he is applying for (a classic example of something that is NOT a BFOQ), but it might be relevant as to why he doesn’t use email.

Anyway, clearly he has a lot of very tech savvy people around him because his web campaign is beating obama’s like a bongo drum.

Poser

> Normally, the McCain camp would respond with false claims of victimhood.

True, ageism is one the last accepted forms of bigotry. I mean it is a sign of how desperate they are getting when they say, “oh yeah, well you are old.” Yeah, Barack, and so is your brand of liberalism. He is coming off as the second coming of Mondale.

> they are desperately afraid of drawing attention to the fact that the old man might drop off and leave Caribou Barbie in charge.

Are you joking? Most people say the fear he might die is not a bug but a feature.

Not that she would be my first choice for president (Giuliani was), but between McCain, Biden, and Obama, um... yeah, I would much rather have her as president.

And please insulting her for her looks. Try this joke I overheard. What is the difference between Barack Obama and Sarah Palin? One is an attractive, well turned out, and, let’s be honest, downright sexy piece of eye candy. The other kills her own food.

I mean my God, I don’t want a vice president who spends too much time on the hair and makeup, but you guys nominated John Edwards anyway. Barbie meet the Ken doll.

[But I will admit that is a funny turn of phrase “Caribou Barbie.”]

See, the dirty little secret in the ninjitsu being performed here is that it takes away some of the “history” factor from Obama. You can balance the issue more. You can say, “sure, McCain will give us another white guy as president, but at least we get a woman as veep.” You aren’t making history as much but balanced against other consideration (for instance, he is the first genuine hero to become president in a long time—probably my whole life), maybe they will vote for mccain. And more than a few people feel that making her veep is like a “down payment” on finally having a woman president, namely because we expect in 2012 or 2016, that she will run on her own.

KWC

> It's like saying we should elect a President who refuses to fly on airplanes but instead prefers to travel by boat. Would you think that's okay? You probably would.

Oh give me a break. McCain uses email, just not personally. He has other people look at it, show him what is important and he dictates replies. Yeah, its retro, but so what? What, are you afraid that there will be a crisis and Iran will send him an email trying to ameliorate it and he won’t get it?

And you compare it to be unwilling to travel by plane? Talk about apples and oranges.

But you know how McCain should respond. He should say, “you know what? He’s right. I will learn it now.” Then he will show his flexibility, even willingness to constructively take criticism, and obama will look like the small man he is.

Opher

Let’s keep his skin color out of it. Let’s judge him not by the color of his skin but the content of his character. And his character sucks. :-)

Bruce Webster

You are right about Clinton and he claimed never to use the internet. Which, given its role in promoting porn seems hard to believe.

I think there's no doubt that a President who can't use the internet or email in 2008 is pretty much not qualified.

It's like saying we should elect a President who refuses to fly on airplanes but instead prefers to travel by boat. Would you think that's okay? You probably would.

Great analogy. Insisting on taking boats would obviously interfere with international travel, which is an important Presidential duty. I guess I must be ignorant because I can't think of an essential Presidential duty that requires the President be able to send e-mail or use the internet. (I'm assuming his staff will be able to use the internet unless he pledges to have an internet-free White House.)

Careful, Opher, you're not supposed to let your true feelings show like that. You got the memo, didn't you? Say "community organizer" instead, OK?

I guess I must be ignorant because I can't think of an essential Presidential duty that requires the President be able to send e-mail or use the internet. (I'm assuming his staff will be able to use the internet unless he pledges to have an internet-free White House.)

I would consider efficiency to be a presidential duty. While being computer illiterate might not prevent him from completing any substantive duty, it will make doing all sorts of things much slower.

I like the Ad. It says to me that McCain does not know the Internet like he does not know mush about Sunnis vs Shias, Iran nor it's borders, like he said he does not know much about the economy (he is allowing Phil Enron Gramm to fill him in on that one) and does not know how many homes he owns.

I'm just waiting for some village idiot to connect the Commodity Futures Modernization Act of 2000 and Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act with our massive economic crisis and the genius of Wall Street hang him.

"I would consider efficiency to be a presidential duty."

I type 75 WPM (I never used a secretary, in private practice or currently), should I throw my hat in the ring.

Joking aside, aren't people here lawyers who have worked in BIGLAW firms? How much gruntwork did you see the head partner on a deal actually do? Even when I was a senior associate I worked for partners who created about one document a month (other than billing invoices).

Somebody somewhere told a joke about Sarah Palin's appearance. Therefore, all Democrats are doing it and, by extension I assume, hate America. Got it.

I'd like to know which LPs Orin has in his office. I'm willing to admit that I have LPs of J Geils Band's Freeze Frame and REO Speedwagon's Hi Infidelity at home (but not at the office!). Come on, Orin, give 'em up...

Obama. The one that can't order a cheeseburger without a TelePrompter.

Heh, just watched the video, the e-mail/computer part is lame but I'm not sure the rest is much better. Promising $$$$$ of corporate tax cuts (note there's no cite given) but doing nothing for the middle class? Does employment count? I'm pretty sure if I'm getting abatements for an expansion (as opposed to not) there is certainly more willingness on my end to expand my business into new markets and employ more people and you know, contribute a bit more to the economy (plus said employees would contribute and pay taxes as well).

Personally I'm glad that McCain doesn't use the internet or email. Do we want him spending his days shopping on Amazon? Deleting Nigerian scam emails? Deleting multiply forwarded inspirational messages?

I'm assuming that much of what the President will need to know isn't on the internet anyway. At least, I hope not.

Seriously, except for reading the Volokh Conspiracy, how much of your computer time is "efficiently" spent?

My guess is that this is an internet only add, so it will probably only be viewed by people who are likely to be sympathetic to the idea.

Joking aside, aren't people here lawyers who have worked in BIGLAW firms? How much gruntwork did you see the head partner on a deal actually do? Even when I was a senior associate I worked for partners who created about one document a month (other than billing invoices).

I suppose, but is that really bar we want to set for the president? The lazy older partner who thinks he's done is dues and can now make other people do all the work? I don't think that's a very fair assessment of either Obama or McCain.

"The lazy older partner who thinks he's done is dues and can now make other people do all the work?"

That wasn't remotely the point I was trying to make. My seven years in BIGLAW weren't always the greatest days of my life, but I never worked for a partner I didn't respect. They just didn't do gruntwork, that was delegated to their employees. They were executives, they were briefed on what was going on and made the executive decisions.

[Partners in my Biglaw Law Firm knew how to send and receive emails.]

Um, my takeaway is that there are technological issues facing the country (copyright, DRM, phishing, etc.) and someone who doesn't use a computer isn't going to have the understanding and nuance required to make smart decisions in those areas. Granted, a lot of these are legislative issues but it certainly holds that the President's technology policy can be (and to me, is) related to their own uses of same. In technology parlance, McCain is a clueless n00b.

Very poor ad. Tone deaf. Lots of people don't use a computer including Bill Clinton. Why insult any voters? Stale message of class warfare. We heard most of this stuff from Walter Mondale.

I personally welcome a president that wants to do as little as possible. That was the sole redeeming quality I saw in Fred Thomson. A lazy president is far less likely to screw things up than one who takes minute interest in every detail of government.

"It's not a matter of survival, it shows a complete lack of interest in learning something new that might be useful. "

Sophism. How do you know its a lack of interest as opposed to a weighed choice?

Analogy: I don't facebook. My wife (MBA) does, virtualy all of her friends do, many of my co-workers/employees do, everyone I know under 25 does. I've had numerous people ask why I don't have a facebook page...its not that I'm uninterested, I've seen the benefits from people that have them and have noticed attributes about it I don't like. I think its unprofessional for the image I want to present, I think it would be time consuming for any value-added, I'm not that good looking. I could be wrong, but its still a choice I made after consideration, not lack of interes.

I personally welcome a president that wants to do as little as possible. That was the sole redeeming quality I saw in Fred Thomson. A lazy president is far less likely to screw things up than one who takes minute interest in every detail of government.

haha, I used to say about Clinton, "Thank goodness he's lazy!"

It's not a matter of survival, it shows a complete lack of interest in learning something new that might be useful. I, for one, would like to have a president that does his utmost to keep up with the latest in all technological developments as an integral part of understanding a changing world.

You're being sarcastic, right?

Nifonged:

Self-importance is annoying, I agree. Let's use every posting opportunity to brag about our former days at BIGLAW and how far we've come by escaping it.

Lame ad, but what Bill Poser said. It's targeted so that the dissed demographic isn't going to see it.

Oh, and also: I doubt the ad will hurt Obama with 80's voters. Or at least, he can make it up by reminding you that the last video game he played was Pong (that was his answer in a pop culture questionnaire.)

It's fine with me that McCain doesn't know how to use email, as long as he never learns. I don't want him giving out the U.S. Treasury's bank account number to a trusted Nigerian.

Nibbles has made it clear that this is related to his disability.

Then this is what McCain can do. Shoot an add, and have him look directly into the camera:

“when I was a prisoner in Vietnam they broke my arms and never allowed them to set. To this day I cannot raise my hands above my head; I cannot salute; and I can’t use a keyboard. Barack Obama has chosen to attack me because of this handicap. We are better than this.”

And it really makes all of the comments criticizing his failure to use a computer as nothing more than criticizing him for having a handicap, which he gained in service for his country.

I admit, I am too amused by the sheer stupidity to actually be offended. Its offensive, and its increasingly clear he is a major turd, but right now I am just cackling laughter.

I have a slide rule but don't have an iPod, so my take on the ad might be slightly biased... but WTF? With A.W. on this - does Obama really, really want to lose in Florida?

Besides the retro vote and the old folk's vote, what about the people who think, "Omigosh, my grandfather is the same way, and don't you knock him, Barack Obama!"

From an interview McCain did with the NY Times: (One should be impressed that he seems to understand the value of blogs, correct?):

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

Mr. McCain: Brooke and Mark 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.

Q: You read newspapers then.

Mr. McCain: I read them most all every day.

there you go again, bringing up that handicap and pow status, milking it for all it's worth, JM. oh, wait, you mean that Obama wasn't smart enough to research little things like your ability to use a keyboard (from a 2000 article in a democratic newspaper).

I think the most effective thing McCain could do is an ad quoting Obama on fuel prices, saying that gas prices rose faster than he would like. He didn't object to $4 a gallon gas, just to the speed at which we got there earlier in the summer.

Joe Biden asks a paraplegic to stand up

Shouldn't Obama be the one telling the paragplegic to stand up?

AW,
I understand about Biden, sort of a "Well, that's Joe."

Obama has touted managing his campaign as constituting executive experience, ergo we should judge him by his campaign. He hit an obstacle and now his campaign looks mean, knee-jerk, and out of control. I have to say, I'm thoroughly underwhelmed by his "executive" prowess.

The real question, Professor, is the Rubik's Cube solved?

"He can use his thumbs despite his was wounds."

How on earth do you know? Can you give us a quick rundown on the things he cannot do due to his injuries?

Let's see, although a computer analyst, and one who actually remamnber creating systems to move universities to email, no matter how I resist, I still know that

1) Blackberry use cefftively drops one's IQ by 10 points (greater than coming to work stoned) (As they say, JFGI)
or you could accept this summary
2) The average clericalworker takes 16 minutes to return to productivity after responding to an email (I think that one even made slahdot)

So, I want the president to be a blackberrying fiend because.....

Admit it -- this ad was Bill and Hillary's latest suggestion to "help" Obama.

Incidentally, there's a pretty strong (and non-luddite) audiophile movement that maintains LPs can sound much better than CDs.

I think this qualifies more as conventional wisdom

That is absolutely the dumbest ad I have seen in years. Whether the reference to the inability to send an e-mail was unintentional, and as such unknowing of the signficant injuries McCain suffered in Vietnam, or an intentional rip of McCain as old AND disabled, which I think is more likely, either way Obama is an idiot for putting it out. Of course, if he gets heat for it, he'll just blame his staff like he always does.

Also, a commenter above said:

Incidentally, there's a pretty strong (and non-luddite) audiophile movement that maintains LPs can sound much better than CDs

Count me as one of those guys, especially with songs with strong and/or heavy basslines. I was a nightclub DJ from 1988 until 2002 in and around Philly and loved using vinyl. I miss the feel and sound of it.

By leaving the DJ business and going to law school and becoming a lawyer, I now make less money, have kess fun, and get less respect. What was I thinking?

When Romney was supposed to get the VP spot I thought it would be cute if McCain made his campaign car an AMC Gremlin. So no, I don't think being a good President requires proficiency with current technology. It's one of those jobs where your time is valuable enough to make it cost-efficient to use other people's labor for pretty much anything you don't do well yourself.

That doesn't mean this ad won't be effective. I assume it relies on a subliminal association between being technologically conversant and the ability to effect change. Still, I don't see it appealing to any of the swing voter demographics.

ok..so this ad kind of blew up in obama's face


but on the plus side the 80's image did remind me of this awesome BoC 80's video!

quintessential 80's

LM, the other possibility is that Obama's people are so inept that they missed all the publicly-available data about McCain's use of technology and the reason he personally doesn't use email when they were doing opposition research. In that case, Obama has demonstrated incompetence in staffing his campaign by hiring incomptents to do his opposition research. Since Obama himself has declared his management of his campaign as direct evidence of his ability to handle executive responsibility, it serves as direct evidence that he's incompetent to be President.

Did anybody in the Democratic Party vet this guy before they made him the Presidential candidate?

1. " . . . greater than coming to work stoned . . . " This threw me, until my paralegal said "oh, I bet he's talking about "quantity"!"

2. Albums sound different than pure digital reproduction because albums, with their friction-based playback, have to be artificially boosted in some freqs and dulled out in others to stop the dragging-a-sliver-across-a-washboard noise.

3. This ad was aimed at disaffected 20-something un-or-underemployed techies, and no one else. If, on the day before the election, someone goes on Wired and posts some fake rumor about a "new, to-be-released-tomorrow-in-limited-quantities-at-Best-Buy" video game with "control-the-naked-woman" graphics, the entire demographic becomes moot.

Okay, more moot.

The quote from that Forbes article is devastating: "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."

Obama on offense is like watching the Rich Kotite Jets.

Steve,

I think it is a TV ad, actually, but even so I think it's safe to say that swing voters will be hearing all about it--from the McCain campaign.

"The average clericalworker takes 16 minutes to return to productivity after responding to an email (I think that one even made slahdot)"

If used correctly e-mail is a great productivity tool. The problem is that most people feel the need to respond immediately to e-mails instead of finishing what they are doing first.

You can only lay off the blame to your staff so many times before people wonder if you are ready for prime time.

You guys may want to familiarize yourselves with the boy who cried wolf. Yesterday's outrage came with the accusation that Obama implied Palin was a pig, a claim even Oren Hatch called ridiculous.

Today you're accusing an Obama ad that mentions McCain's computer illiteracy of ridiculing McCain's war injuries because it's painful for McCain to type. But McCain himself said recently he's learning how to get online, and there are all kinds of resources that let even quadriplegics use computers, surf the internet and send e-mail, needless to say without typing a word.

Can we just stipulate that you're offended by everything Obama and his campaign will do between now and election day?

Yesterday David Brooks commented (and I'm paraphrasing) that though neither campaign has exactly covered itself in glory, the McCain campaign's behavior has been the slightly more egregious.

Can we just stipulate that you're offended by everything Obama and his campaign will do between now and election day?

And let's add the stipulation that they think everything McCain and Palin and their campaigns do and say is brilliant and correct and the soul of insight and integrity.

Hey LM, does that mean you'll admit that your mouth will be squarely placed around the O campaign's testicles until the end of the campaign too?

Most of the people here aren't saying obama made some malicious mistake in an ad that not only doesn't take into account McCain's war injuries (and his limitation of fine motor control - which isn't exactly a secret) but also has a completely false central premise. Instead, we're saying his campaign was unequivocally stupid in making/releasing that ad and not even doing the minimal fact checking they should have. For a person who refers to his ability to run a campaign as his experience to be a leader, these examples of ineptitude are pretty unsettling.


I don't doubt that both campaigns have been dirty -- welcome to politics.

Not only is Barack Hussein Obama a closet Mohammedan *and* a soft Marxist, he mocks war hero Mr. McCain for having been so hurt by Commie torturers that he can no longer easily type at all. I am decidedly not a fan of Mr. McCain and his trashing of the First Amendment, but this commercial from Obama is a new low even for a race-baiter and class-warfare machine politican from corrupt Chicago.

Because of all this, and the selection of much-maligned Ms. Palin as Veep, I will for the first time ever in my life vote for the Republican ticket for the Presidency, instead of invariably voting for the Libertarian ticket on general principles.

The Democratic Party leadership has become literally the party leadership of spoiled brats badly in need of not merely severe spankings, but outright horsewhippings.

Hmmmmm.

"The ad doesn't seem particularly effective to me, but I find it hilarious that people here think Obama is intentionally making fun of John McCain's war injuries. That's just preposterous. Who would do something like that? When you're running for president? If that's really the case, then I guess you guys are right, Obama must be the anti-Christ. "

Frankly what I find curious is the the constant assurances from Obama supporters that he couldn't possibly be such an dumbass, asshole, asshat or jerk to do ... whatever the Douchebag Du Jour happens to be.

And yet it happens again and again.

IMO that "explanation" is wearing very very thin.

Could everyone just stop spewing nonsense about how McCain can't use a computer becuase of his war injuries. I know Jonah Goldberg said it, so you think it must be true, but let's listen to someone who might know better:

Look here.

"John McCain travels with a laptop," said McCain campaign spokesman Tucker Bounds.

Btw, scrappleface has the double secret version of the new obama ad.

http://www.scrappleface.com/?p=3108

(and for the 5 of you who don't know, Scrappleface is a parody website.)

Crafty

Ah, got it. Its always cool how much knowledge is floating around the net.

LM

I never questioned McCain's disabled status, and you know it, so don't play that game with me.

> will associate McCain's technological illiteracy with his injuries. He doesn't seem to. It didn't occur to me, and as I mentioned, anyway there are hardware and software solutions for any such impediment.

One he is far from technologically illiterate. And pretending you know the contours of his disabilities to the point of telling him how to accommodate it is wrong. Sheesh.

For instance, Steven Hawkings uses a computer, but the cost benefits analysis is very different for him. He can’t communicate, period, without one.

By contrast, one of my best friends from my law school years has a complete breakdown in motor control. He cannot even turn a page without help. While there are voice recognition programs that work better and better each day, he prefers to work with actual people when composing text. Could he do what Hawkings does? Of course. But it makes less sense for him.

> And if I don't tell them, I prefer they not assume any limitations or needs on my behalf.

Well, he’s been accommodated for years. For instance, it is a nightly ritual of him and his wife to read email together every night. She is part of his accommodation. Get it?

> So when he talks about learning how to get online and mentions nothing about his disability, I don't presume to make that his problem.

Then you need to look into it more before you shoot your mouth off, because the specific reason why he doesn’t use email is his disability.

> I guarantee you John McCain has made tougher adjustments than acclimating to Naturally Speaking or some other typing alternative.

I’m sure he does use a typing alternative. Its called a senate staff. And in my experience a human always does a better job that a computer program.

LM

You didn't say that? You didn't say this?

> There are lots of increasingly effective, ever less costly (not that that would be an issue for McCain) computing work arounds for disabilities more severe than his.

Never lie when the truth can be cut and pasted.