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Why Obama can't Google
Jonah Goldberg. . . To prove his newfound determination, bare-knuckle Obama unveiled a new TV ad, to air in key states. It begins with the date 1982, a picture of a disco ball and footage of McCain in clunky glasses from his first year in Washington. Things have changed in the last 26 years, but McCain hasnt, says the announcer. He admits he still doesnt know how to use a computer, cant send an e-mail, still doesnt understand the economy and favors $200 billion in new tax cuts for corporations, but almost nothing for the middle class. All the while it shows ancient computers and a cordless phone that looks like a walkie-talkie from Ice Station Zebra. The tax-cuts and economy barbs are familiar boilerplate. Whats new is the charge of computer illiteracy and the blatant attempt to attack McCain as too old for the job and that speaks volumes. First, the ad is dishonest. McCain has been one of the Senates leading authorities on telecom and the Internet. . . . One reason McCain is not versed in the mechanical details of sending e-mail and typing on a keyboard is that the North Vietnamese broke his fingers and shattered both of his arms. As Forbes, Slate, and the Boston Globe reported in 2000, McCains injuries make using a keyboard painfully laborious. He mostly relies on his wife and staff to show him e-mails and Web sites, though he says hes getting up to speed. Its extraordinary, Obama spokesman Dan Pfeiffer said, that someone who wants to be our president and our commander in chief doesnt know how to send an e-mail. For the record, President Clinton sent exactly two e-mails while in office. Besides, by this logic, Obama is even less qualified to be commander-in-chief because, unlike McCain, Obama has never fired a gun, flown a plane, or led men during wartime. And if the Obama campaign didnt intend to mock a disabled veteran, (the jury's still out on that one) what does it say about his supposedly cybersavvy staffers that they dont know how to conduct a five-minute Google search? But the most revealing aspect of the ad is its target audience: Obama has a 20- to 30-point advantage over McCain among 18- to 29-year-olds. Indeed, his base (not counting black voters) is upscale college kids and new-economy young voters. They may think being able to send an e-mail is, like, totally crucial. The only other constituency other than the press that will be jazzed by such an attack are the Web-symbiotes of the left-wing netroots, another demographic Obama has locked up. But older Americans, working-class Americans, veterans, and other voters Obama desperately needs probably wont care and might even take offense at Obamas condescension and insensitivity. There are two explanations for the ad. One is that Obama released it to reassure his base that hes serious about attacking McCain, not to win over swing voters. That, or the campaign actually thinks its an effective ad. Either way, the lesson is the same: Obama doesnt know how to get outside his echo chamber. He talks about being bipartisan to hard-core liberals who like the words, but he rejects actual deviation from the liberal line. He talks about new ideas while repackaging old ones. He is a candidate who has never had to sell himself to voters who werent already sold. And it shows. Posted by: Mike 2008-09-17 |
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