“Blogs have been buzzing recently over McCain’s admission that when it comes to the Internet, ‘I’m an illiterate who has to rely on his wife for any assistance he can get.’ And the 71-year-old presumptive Republican presidential nominee, asked about his Web use last week by the New York Times, said that aides ‘go on for me. I will have that down fairly soon, getting on myself,'” The Associated Press reports.
AP asks. “How unusual is it for a 71-year-old American to be unplugged?”
“That depends on how you look at the statistics. Only 35 percent of Americans over age 65 are online, according to data from April and May compiled by the Pew Internet Project at the Pew Research Center,” AP reports. “But when you account for factors like race, wealth and education, the picture changes dramatically. ‘About three-quarters of white, college-educated men age over 65 use the Internet,’ says Susannah Fox, director of the project.”
AP reports, “McCain spokeswoman Brooke Buchanan presented a somewhat updated picture when contacted by The Associated Press on Friday: ‘He’s fully capable of browsing the Internet and checking Web sites,’ Buchanan said. “‘He has a Mac and uses it several times a week. He’s working on becoming more familiar with the Internet.'”
“As for McCain’s Democratic rival, Barack Obama is 46, and thus in an age group where fully 85 percent of Americans are plugged in,” AP reports. “A CNN clip available on YouTube shows him so engrossed with his Blackberry while crossing a street that he bumps into the curb.”
AP reports, “One blogger opined last week that all the fuss is silly. McCain, wrote Newsweek’s Andrew Romano, hasn’t become computer literate because he hasn’t needed to. ‘When aides are responding to your messages and briefing you on every imaginable subject, the incentive to get online sort of disappears,’ he wrote.”
More in the full article here.
[UPDATE: 2:59pm EDT: According to a Newsweek article published in February, Obama also uses a Mac: “Michelle [Obama] recently bought two MacBook laptops, one for Barack and one for the kids, so they could have video chats over the Internet.” Full article here.]
[Thanks to MacDailyNews Reader “WalterKovacs” for the heads up.]
Work on that Internet thing, John; at least you have a Mac. And get an iPhone, Barak; you’ll instantly wonder why you ever thought you “loved” your BlackBerry.
Add McCain and Obama to the list of confirmed Mac users that includes President George Bush, Rush Limbaugh, Al Gore, Karl Rove, John Kerry, Moby, and tens of millions more…