Sunday, September 14, 2008

Senator McCain's tenuous relationship with email

One of the most popular memes of this campaign has certainly been experience or lack thereof. However, oftentimes with experience comes age - and the age difference between the presidential candidates must be one of the largest in American history.

The Obama campaign has released a new ad highlighting the fact that John McCain doesn't know how to use computers - or email. It's an effective ad. I certainly don't know if I feel comfortable with a president who's either too obstinate or elderly to learn how to use the one of the most basic functions of a modern computer, which is a reasonably user-friendly machine. Computers are no longer the size of living rooms, nor do users have to create their own programs and punch cards. If John McCain really wanted to succeed in this campaign, or at least appeal to younger voters, he should have taken a computer class at the local learning annex, or even just had one of his aides to teach him how to use Gmail. Perhaps it's a generational thing, but computers don't seem to be going anywhere - refusing to learn how to use email is not like refusing how to use a Laserdisc player.

Obama's campaign has stayed away from negative ads for the most part but I think that the criticism of McCain's technical ineptitude is warranted and should be pointed out to the public.

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