PCMag.com: Attack of the Geeks on John McCain

July 23, 2008 | Filed Under Democrats/Leftists, Elections, Inernet, Media Bias, News, President, Publius Contributor, Society/Culture, Technology, Warner Todd Huston |

-By Warner Todd Huston

Someone peed in Lance Ulanoff’s pocket protector and it must have been a Republican, because Ulanoff, one of PCMag.com’s chief geeks, unloaded on the “tech illiterate” John McCain in a July 16th article, insisting that McCain isn’t “tech savvy enough to run this country.”

Ulanoff is filled with all sorts of assumptions and with faux indignation that John McCain dares run for president even though he has admitted that he doesn’t know a whole lot about computers. Naturally, Ulanoff begins with the left’s favorite talking point du jour, that McCain is too old.

John McCain, the oldest presidential candidate this nation has ever had, has now proven, by his own admission, that he’s not tech savvy enough to run this country.

So, what is uber geek Ulanoff’s reason that McCain isn’t able to lead this country in a “tech” age? Why its because McCain says he can’t use a computer that’s why. Oh, and he’s old… let’s not forget that

McCain recently admitted to The New York Times that he currently has other people go online to get him the information he needs, adding that he’s working on mastering the technology. According to the Times, McCain uses “his wife, and aides like Mark Salter, a senior adviser, and Brooke Buchanan, his press secretary, to get him online.” McCain actually said that these people “go on for me.”

Then the clincher from McCain: “I don’t e-mail. I’ve never felt the particular need to e-mail.”

Well, just before writing this, I looked the Constitution over to see where the e-mail requirement was. Funny thing is, I couldn’t find it.

Ulanoff’s main reason seems to be that a president that can’t even operate a computer can’t understand issues of Net neutraility and Internet policy and, therefore, won’t have enough knowledge to make decisions in those areas. This, of course, assumes that a president knows all of human knowledge once he ascends to office and doesn’t need aides and advisors to help him learn about and make decisions on important issues while in office.

Oh, and don’t forget, McCain’s too old.

But, let’s face reality about computers and the president, any president. Thanks to the over use of the attack dogs called “special prosecutors,” and the overweening interference of the Executive Branch by Congress, no president is even going to bother using e-mail and computers very much.

Last May, Bush even claimed that he looks forward to using e-mail to contact friends and family again after he leaves office. In a report on the president’s remarks, a New York Times blog reported that “Mr. Bush stopped e-mailing when he entered the White House, citing security worries, and the Oval Office does not have a computer in it.”

So, here we have in the presidency of the United States of America a job where using a computer is not only unnecessary, it is specifically eschewed because of the danger it represents.

So, if McCain won’t even have to use a computer while in office (and that is because the left would use it to attack him), then why is it such a requirement that he be “tech savvy”?

If Ulanoff wants a president to use a computer, he might want to get Congress to stop looking for every excuse it can find to “get” the president so that a future president might find it safe enough while in office to use one in this “tech savvy” world in which we live.

So, let me say this to Ulanoff. You are too “politically illiterate” to assess if McCain is suitable enough to fill the oval office. Your opinion is uninformed and unimportant. But thanks for stopping by. McCain might be less than computer literate, but that skill is not in any way a requirement to be a qualified candidate for president of the US.

Oh, but McCain’s old, too. Did Ulanoff mention that?

(Photo credit: www.gamesandmobile.com)

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Warner Todd Huston is a Chicago based freelance writer, has been writing opinion editorials and social criticism since early 2001 and is featured on many websites such as newsbusters.org, townhall.com, New Media Journal, Men’s News Daily and the New Media Alliance among many, many others. Additionally, he has been a frequent guest on talk-radio programs to discuss his opinion editorials and current events. He has also written for several history magazines and appears in the new book “Americans on Politics, Policy and Pop Culture” which can be purchased on amazon.com. He is also the owner and operator of publiusforum.com. Feel free to contact him with any comments or questions : EMAIL Warner Todd Huston