Oops, Obama ad mocks McCain's inability to send e-mail. Trouble is, he can't due to tortured fingers

(UPDATE: An updated paragraph citing McCain learning computer skills is appended below.)

As part of its effort to show the 72-year-old Republican Sen. John McCain as old and out of touch, the Democratic Party's hip campaign of Sen. Barack Obama, which frequently says it honors the former POW's military service to his country, Friday released a new ad.

As noted Friday by our blogging colleagues over at the Technology blog here, the ad says, among other things: "1982, John McCain goes to Washington. Things have changed in the last 26 years, but McCain hasn't.

"He admits he doesn't know how to use a computer, can't send an e-mail."

Here's the ad. Listen for yourself.

Like many of his generation, McCain does not like to talk details a lot about his wartime experiences, certainly not about any lingering physical symptoms. To be honest, it could sound like complaining and, as he's ruefully noted, unlike many others, McCain did come home.

The former pilot does joke sometimes about flying his plane into a telephone-pole-sized North Vietnamese missile.

Last week in his speech to the Republican National Convention, McCain opened up more than usual, mentioning his two broken arms and broken leg from ejecting over Hanoi, and his 66 months of imprisonment and torture, calling it simply working him over.

But something he did not go into in that speech were ...

... some of the lingering results of his poor medical treatment and brutal beatings.

Here's a passage from a lengthy Boston Globe profile on McCain that was published the last time he ran for president. It was headlined "McCain character loyal to a fault." It was written by Mary Leonard.

And it was printed more than eight years ago, on March 4, 2000.

It is available online, where Jonah Goldberg of The Corner blog at the National Review found it.

"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."

(UPDATE: A spokesman for the Obama campaign and numerous Ticket readers point out a Huffington Post item from July in which McCain says he is learning how to go online and "I am becoming computer literate to the point where I can get the information that I need." That complete post and a photo of McCain using a cellphone is available here.)

Obama spokesman Dan Pfeiffer denied that the freshman Illinois senator's ad was making an issue of McCain's age. "It's extraordinary," he said, "that someone who wants to be our president and commander in chief doesn't know how to send an e-mail."

The Obama campaign has seen some significant and disturbing poll shifts since its convention in Denver, including a broad movement of white women toward the GOP ticket after that party named Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin its vice presidential nominee. And some local and congressional Democrats have begun to fret and grumble over a perceived softness in the Obama-Biden ticket.

According to the Associated Press, Obama campaign manager David Pfouffle issued a stern campaign strategy memo Friday that said, in part:

"Today is the first day of the rest of the campaign. We will respond with speed and ferocity to John McCain's attacks and we will take the fight to him, but we will do it on the big issues that matter to the American people."

The "big issues."

Like fractured fingers?

-- Andrew Malcolm

Comments

[E]

If McCain is so dysfunctional, what is America getting in him becoming President? All these technological tasks being met with excuses of how McCain supposedly can't do them, tiresomely using his POW experience as the excuse! If his mind has not been affected by that POW experience, then there is no excuse for his being ignorant of how such technologies function. He can be informed about them in spite of his being unable to literally do them. I hope that those out there who support McCain have never said a word about how Franklin Delano Roosevelt was physically unfit to be President, (because McCain seems to be worse off). That would be hypocrisy and flip-flopping on the issue, which of course Republicans absolutely ever, never, ever do. Do they?

[deBeer]

The vicious attacks by people who claim moral superiority, who often refer to conservatives as knuckle draggers are telling.

[drvolny]

Awww! Did McCain hurt his itty-bitty fingers? Carol McCain kissed the booboo, but Cindy McCain reaped the benefits.

Has McCain EVER said that he CAN'T use his fingers??? NO! Sooo... you just made that excuse up for him. Are you his personal occupational therapist? Probably not! So, if I tell you that I also can't type, what excuse do I get? You don't KNOW McCain, so don't pretend you do.

And for all of you believing this crap, you're even worse. The ad CLEARLY says McCain is still in the 1980s. It mentions NOTHING about some damn broken fingers. My dad turned 67 last week and knows how to program, upload and design websites without any formal training. He taught himself in the 1990s.

Remember... McCain used to be YOUNGER!!! In 1990 he was only 54! In 1975, he was 39! There were typewriters back then. That's how most people learned how to type. In 33 years, he NEVER learned how to type??? Maybe he knows how to type, but doesn't know how to logon and click "send" for email. Again, he was in his 50s in the 1990s. He was out of touch then and he's still out of touch now. For all you older people who empathize, don't. If you've posted a response to this absurd blog, you're already a step ahead of McCain, PROVING OBAMA'S POINT! So thanks! Old folks rule!!!!

[Bubba]

The McCain campaign's lies make it clear that John McCain would rather lose his integrity than lose this election

[tsesee]

Did you ever hear of voice recognition software? Oh wait, that technology is only 15 years old. Too new for McBush!

[Bubba]

The McCain campaign's lies make it clear that John McCain would rather lose his integrity than lose this election

[benjoya]

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

http://www.balloon-juice.com/?p=11294

john mcCain using a blackberry:
http://www.rimarkable.com/senator-john-mccain-is-a-blackberry-user

and why again did mcCain vote against the GI bill?

[tweet]

Well we know that Barry O can use e-mail. He was conversing with that Hollywood starlet. We also know how nimble his fingers are. Those blunts can be tough to roll, and laying out those lines...very difficult.

[John]

Now you know you can't call a liar a liar...if he's been a POW

[Stefanie]

I'm sorry, Mr McCain, I don't buy it. You've been playing the sympathy card for too long. And in my eyes you are a HYPOCRITE like the rest of your party because you voted AGAINST veteran's benefits and were NOT AGAINST the torture of others.
Barack and Biden have the integrity, intelligence (computer literacy or NOT) and CHANGE that we need. Unfortunatly you and Palin represent nothing but lies lies and more lies. I TRULY hope and pray that your campaign is on the BRIDGE TO NOWHERE!

[Randy]

Amazing how many Obama supporters feel free to mock a man for things that they know nothing about. People with disabilities are often forced to pretend everything is okay so that they won't be subjected to mean-spirited comments like those written here. Obama should be willing to protect these people from this kind of attack and not use the disability of another man to promote his own relative strength, it's not fair, and it's not the way Americans treat each other.

[Smoochy]

Reading these comments really disturbs me. Insults, smears, innuendo, and just plain rudeness abound. Does anyone remember civility?

I'm not telling you who I am voting for. You should (almost) all be ashamed of yourselves.

[George]

I am sick and tired of the excuses for McCain. His POW injuries--what a bunch nonsense for his not being able to use a computer. My brother lost both of his arms while a student at UCLA working at the Chemistry Dept on a research project during the 1960's and if you wish to research it his name Michael Esparza and may brother rest in peace. After his accident he learned to us his prosthetic arms and he would type, pickup coffee cups and dress himself with the help of his wife and made no excuses. I will never vote for McCain since what I see is a man who is dishonest and lacking in credibility. McCain is a liar.

[SlowBurn]

obama is a loser and is clearly unqualified to be president (or senator, for that matter)

[Tired of the Persoanl Attacks]

I guess Obama has access to all the pc's the Clintons took
from the Whitehouse when they left no wonder he can send an E-mail What else can he do?

I am not impressed.

[SlowBurn]

obama is a loser and is clearly unqualified to be president (or senator, for that matter)

[D. Foster]

Here we go again. Another McCain supporter is spreading scurrilous lies about the Obama campaign and using John McCain's war time experiences as cover.

Here is a John McCain quote from an interview in the July 8, 2008 issue of the New York Times:
“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.”

So apparently Senator McCain is able to use a keyboard. Perhaps if Andrew Malcolm learned to use his own keyboard he would find some truthful information to write about rather than just dishing out the latest Republican talking point.

Why does the L.A. Times allow this stuff to be printed and placed so prominently? What is the L.A. Times' agenda?

[Calirado]

Typical really . . . any criticism on McCain is met with "POW" "POW" "POW" "POW" We get it already. But he's STILL not going to be President!

[Ruth]

Great- so all the liberals want someone who has never done anything of note in his political career BUT can boast of excellent email and internet skills. Wonderful- maybe the next time this country is attacked Obama can challenge them to some online game to settle the dispute. Wake up people- neither candidate is perfect but choose someone that has some credentials - otherwise you wind up with the same kind of ineffectual no-nothing that Massachusetts now has for a governor.

[janiebabe]

This email thing is so lame. If he can use his finger, he can type and if he can push a button, he can send email. I'll tell you what, my dad (God rest his soul) served in 7 of the 8 campaigns in World War II as a scout and has a wall full of medals. He would be appalled, if he were alive to see how McCain is behaving. McCain pulls the POW card out all the time. My dad didn't like talking about the war. McCain exploits his war experience to meet his own political ends. I'd never vote for him.

[GMGW]

Can't send an e-mail 'cause of war injuries, huh? Poor old guy. Wonder how he manages to use his Blackberry, then? Take a look at . Does the GOP know how to do anything but lie?

[JKM]

Anyone who can use a cell phone, as McCain has been photographed doing many times, can use email.

Furthermore, my mom is 72, in a wheelchair and has hands that shake badly. She still sends me email from Florida, which she has a friend help her write. If my mom can learn how to use email, so can John McCain, injury or no injury.

You get no sympathy here.

[DJN]

This week we have the McCain campaign to a T. First you lie. (And lie and lie and lie.) Then you play the victim card.

McCain doesn't use the internet because he's not interested not because of a disability, which others have pointed out needn't discourage him from using a computer.

[Andrew1953]

It is not necessary or even desirable for the President to send emails. An efficient executive dictates his correspondence because it saves hours of time otherwise wasted at the keyboard. Dictation keeps the executive focused on the core of the message and allows others to wrap that message in "Washington" Boiler Plate.

[jan from new orleans]

Stop making excuses for Mc Cain. He is a liar and a dishonorable man. Heaven help us if he becomes president