“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…
@Dayne:
Uhh, apparently you don’t remember the time when RIMs servers were down several times in a short period of time (like a few weeks) and it was all over the news. Blackberry is having all sorts of issues of their own and is no champion of uptime!
Fsck both of these clowns. Too bad Bozo died, he’d make a good choice for their vice president.
Give us some real news. What do Ron Paul and Bob Barr use?
MW: hope
Gee, maybe McCain can use his new found computer skills to look up his own voting record, or check if Czechoslovakia still exists, or determine whether Iraq and Pakistan share a border. (All recent gaffs by McCain in interviews…)
Let’s hope he doesn’t fall for the Nigerian email scams.
I can’t say I have followed much of this stuff (after all who really cares about a superpower that gets kicked and can’t even figure out how to get back up) but I did see some news where one of them (can’t say which ones, all you yanks look the same to me) was going on about the AENUS Alliance got distracted from Bin Laddin by Iraq.
Duh!
Road Warrior,
“all you yanks look the same to me”
Do you mean: fat, drunk and stupid?
That sounds about right.
It may be best for MDN to refrain from posting any further stories with political references on this site. MDN clearly not does not monitor the site for inappropriate comments. This topic more than any others brings out some extremely immature people – even for a mac site. Its really sad and disappointing to me that some people choose to express themselves using such offensive language and have such radical views. Mac community, lets raise the bar for entries here as we don’t need to tolerate offensive behavior here. Btw…. Here is the full Newsweek story referenced: http://www.blog.newsweek.com/blogs/stumper/archive/2008/07/14/mccain-can-t-use-a-google-so-what.aspx Interesting excerpt: ” George W. Bush gave up email when he was elected in 2000. The reason? National security worries. What’s more, there’s no computer in the Oval Office, and the president can’t surf in the Executive Residence, either. McCain or Obama would certainly follow suit.”
Again we observe the slow spiral downwards of an MDN political thread, ending in the inevitable sound of a barrel bottom being scraped.
Why does the color of someone’s skin matter to so many?
What difference does this make?
@crackberry — The IT department for Congress may not support the iPhone yet; the Blackberry may be what he uses for his Senate business, while he has the iPhone for personal/family use.
I agree with Sir Bill Gates. Only an idiot (or a dead person) wouldn’t see that Bush is all cosy with China for a reason. Politics and/or business almost always trump everything else. And now that Russia & China is improving their relationship, I’m sure he’s getting all flustered.
And to all of you democracy/human rights/etc-now-or-bust people, as long as you keep on trying to force your beliefs on others, you’ll always have people wishing you get your a** shafted by someone.
China’s a powerful and influential country with a fast growing economy that happens to be run on a brand of communism, but how many people in the world want to fly planes into her buildings or want to kill her people.
*No disrespect to those affected by 9/11.
Maybe, just maybe, Bush is not cut out for this President thing? While experience helps, it does not ensure success. Unless of course, the only requirement to be the President of the United States is to be able to sit in a classroom reading a story and looking like a less-than-intelligent person.
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Empires rise and fall, my friends. Romans, Europeans, Muslims, Christians, etc – all had their golden age. Nothing lasts forever. The best thing is to accept that fact and try to make no enemies.
But then again, what the hell do i know.
And now for the obligatory Mac cheer:
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Woohoo! Macs Rule!!!
@Don
In Russia, a “black” person is slang for a Chechnyan.
Wow, MacSheikh, you’ve really outdone yourself here with this statement:
“The best thing is to accept that fact and try to make no enemies.”
That ideology right there is what divides conservatives and liberals. On the one hand you have the party that accepts defeat without a fight. In the other hand you have people who would rather die fighting, trying, doing something about the problem instead of just giving into inevitability.
So you go ahead and give up your crown jewels, your freedom, and accept defeat. Enjoy your long life of servitude to those who seek to destroy America. You are a traitor if you’re an American.
Maginary,
“In the other hand you have people who would rather die fighting, trying, doing something about the problem instead of just giving into inevitability.”
I agree that to die fighting is a noble thing. But only if your fight is righteous. I had hoped we would have learned from Vietnam, but alas, no. We have allowed a virtueless man to embroil our country in another foolish act of unwarranted barbarity in Iraq. Then we grasp at any straw to justify it, instead of admitting our complicity.
As for those here who say these conversations should be stopped, at least we aren’t talking about that friggin’ iPhone.
MacShiek writes:
“Maybe, just maybe, Bush is not cut out for this President thing?”
Ya think?
Hopefully, you were being facetious.
“Maybe, just maybe, Bush is not cut out for this President thing?”
Media outlets are reporting that George W. Bush has reluctantly agreed to end his occupation of the White House on January 20, 2009 but that he wants the record to show that he was strongly against announcing a timetable.
His first preference was to gradually leave office over the next few years.
“Only an idiot (or a dead person) wouldn’t see that Bush is all cosy with China for a reason.”
Does no one remember what Bill Clinton did with the Chinese in the 90s? (Besides the idiots and the dead people)
Do you libs not have any concept of history? Or do y’all just forget the facts that apply to your decisions?
A full 36 hours later and YOU ARE WRONG, AMPAR! A paultry 2 pages!
To Bluefin:
Yeah. So disappointing. I blame Oppenheimer!
And of course, Karl Rove.
TowerTone,
Are you forgetting what Richard Nixon did?
He’s the s.o.b. that started all of this.
I know I’m setting myself up here.
This is getting ridiculous. I have a BB8800 and a 2nd gen iPhone (admitted, twas a gift) and I prefer the Blackberry. How come people all of a sudden believe that the new iPhone just must be so much better than a BB? Or well…make that – all people visiting the MDN forums. Everyone here seems to be an ex-BB user and expert on the matter, right? Besides, I have a first gen iPod Touch (is there a 2nd gen at all?) for music-use-only. I wouldn’t want to have my music or those few utils & games draining the battery of my phone.
“Are you forgetting what Richard Nixon did?”..
Got us out of a war J.F.K. fouled up..??
flash,
“Got us out of a war J.F.K. fouled up..??”
Right you are. I guess he does deserve thanks for that.
Now will someone please do the same with G.W.’s little fiasco?
Actually, Gill, I think Mao deserves the real credit.
He instilled the slave labor that encourages MFN, which is supposed to be used to stop that behavior.
As far as Clinton, I’m just saying that Bill signed onto it just like the others without getting any serious concessions.
Oh, and as far as G.W.’s “fiasco”, if the Democrat Congress ever votes to de-fund Iraq, you WILL get the same results as Vietnam, and the left will finally be right about the similarities….
TowerTone,
Yeah, you are right. The Dems have been a bunch of blowhard, gutless wonders on this. Makes you wonder just how much they really are against the war. Buncha buttholes.
Speaking of the ol’ Chairman, I remember reading an article a number of years ago about him.
It said he liked to dance. They had a place set up for him and would bring in young girls for him to cut a rug with. There was a separate room with a bed where they would take a little break.
It also said he never brushed his teeth, only gargled with tea. The thought of that old bastard humping and breathing his stench on those little girls really turned my stomach. That story has always stuck with me. I wish it hadn’t.
Just a little something to lighten the mood, eh.