McCain's Top Policy Man: McCain Qualified for Presidency Because He "Helped Create" BlackBerrys

This, I suspect, will be as big a headache for the McCainers as the "How many houses do I own?" episode. I mean, we're still joking about Al Gore inventing the internet eight years later, right?

Asked what work John McCain did as Chairman of the Senate Commerce Committee that helped him understand the financial markets, the candidate's top economic adviser wielded visual evidence: his BlackBerry.

"He did this," Douglas Holtz-Eakin told reporters this morning, holding up his BlackBerry. "Telecommunications of the United States is a premier innovation in the past 15 years, comes right through the Commerce committee so you're looking at the miracle John McCain helped create and that's what he did."

Update: For what it's worth, BlackBerry is made by a Canadian company.

Update Update: The AP gets sassy in its write-up, saying, "McCain has acknowledged that he doesn't know how to use a computer and can't send e-mail, one of the BlackBerry's prime functions."

Too Many Updates!!: The Obama campaign keeps its eye on the ball in its response:

“If John McCain hadn’t said that ‘the fundamentals of our economy are strong’ on the day of one of our nation’s worst financial crises, the claim that he invented the BlackBerry would have been the most preposterous thing said all week,” said Obama campaign spokesman Bill Burton.

Comments

I'm not sure the weirdest part of that isn't "Telecommunications of the United States is a premier innovation of the last fifteen years, comes right through the Commerce committee. . ." Say what? That is so wrong in so many ways I can't even begin to count them all. Boy, talk about out of touch.

Posted by: smitisan on 09/16/08 at 7:58 AM Respond

Not to mention that the idea that McCain would invent technology, when he is incapable of using older tech like a computer, is pretty laughable.

Posted by: JP on 09/16/08 at 8:25 AM Respond

Hey, come on. Maybe he did invent the BlackBerry. Haven't you heard? He is also on the Indian Affairs Committee. Rumor has it that he invented the tomahawk. Of course that could have been the helicopter. What a maroon.

Posted by: Frederick Lee Fuller on 09/16/08 at 9:17 AM Respond

For what it's worth, Blackberry is not a company. Blackberry is a product made by Canadian company, Research In Motion (RIM).

Posted by: Guy Incognito on 09/16/08 at 9:29 AM Respond

Blackberry is not a company. Good job dude.

Posted by: Gordon on 09/16/08 at 10:30 AM Respond

JS,

Just heard you on the Thom Hartmann radio show - Sounded good, very balanced and well spoken.

Keep up the good work!

Posted by: capt on 09/16/08 at 10:41 AM Respond

The American Ruse &
when Black Friday comes.

Honesty or lies?
Compassion or greed?
Intelligence or narrow-minded?
Guts - or go along to get along?

Ralph Nader
Cynthia McKinney

Ron Paul
Mike Gravel
Dennis Kucinich

Jesse Ventura
H. Ross Perot
President Carter
JFK RFK MLK Malcolm

Posted by: nader PAUL mckinney on 09/17/08 at 5:18 AM Respond

The idea of McCain even being responsible for legislation that led to the blackberry is absurd. That is the problem with him and his ilk. They think that they can look high tech by association. McCain's problem isn't that he is too old, his problem is that he is trapped by prejudices and circumstances of the past. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=62dO_pIrWoU

Posted by: bilco5 on 09/17/08 at 3:36 PM Respond