McCain Invented Blackberry? Adviser Says He Helped

MIAMI — Move over, Al Gore. You may lay claim to the Internet, but John McCain helped create the BlackBerry.

At least that's the contention of a top McCain policy adviser, Douglas Holtz-Eakin. Waving his BlackBerry personal digital assistant and citing McCain's work as a senator, he told reporters Tuesday, "You're looking at the miracle that John McCain helped create."

A McCain aide later dismissed the remark as "a boneheaded joke by a staffer."

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.

Holtz-Eakin's argument is similar to one advanced by Gore, the Democratic presidential nominee in 2000. Gore once boasted about "taking the initiative to create the Internet" through technological and educational policies. He later was mocked for claiming to have invented the Internet, although he never made such a claim.

Holtz-Eakin, former director of the Congressional Budget Office, said McCain's service on and leadership of the Senate Commerce Committee put him at the intersection of a number of economic interests, including the telecommunications industry.

The Arizona senator's handling of regulation and deregulation of that industry in particular left him with the skills to help revive the economy amid a mortgage crisis, an energy crisis and a Wall Street meltdown, the adviser said.

"He can and has the judgment to put people in place with technical expertise, with the history of experience in the areas necessary, that we're going to get reforms," Holtz-Eakin said.

Senior McCain aide Matt McDonald said that the senator "laughed" when he heard the comment about the BlackBerry.

"He would not claim to be the inventor of anything, much less the BlackBerry. This was obviously a boneheaded joke by a staffer," McDonald said.

In a statement, Democratic candidate Barack Obama's campaign spokesman Bill Burton said: "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."

Comments

[dillydawg]

This is just plain comic relief. This report can't be serious.

[Trittydi]

Republic's are consummate, pathological liars. They'll say anything - and NOT for comic relief.
*

[Ray46]

McCain is confused again.
The USA spent billions with Blackwater, not Blackberry.

[lissak]

When my father was 86 years old and having a hard time getting around, he was still on his computer every day. The best gift you could get him was new software.

Old age is not an excuse for not being computer literate. Of course, dementia might hinder the ability to learn.....that might be MAC's problem.

[NoSandwiches]

True. My 66 year old mother teaches displaced workers how to use the computer and update their skills so that they may try to re-enter the job market. These are necessary skills, especially when you have lost the job you did for twenty-five years and now don't qualify for anything else without them. She has taught a lot of people of a lot of ages, including men and women in their 70s and 80s and she said it is easier to teach an enthusiastic 80 year old than a 40 year old who just doesn't want to learn.

McCain doesn't NEED email. He has people for that. If he doesn't, his wife will buy him some.

[Fremon]

A friend mine has an aunt in a retirement home. Many 80-90 year old person their were using the internet, mostly to keep in touch with their families. Go to libraries and you see many on computers for various functions as presumably they can't afford the computers and monthly internet providers. This to me reflects McCain still living in the middle of the last century. Do we want a 21st or 20th century president?

FOUR MORE YEARS OF INCOMPETENCE AND CORRUPTION
MCCAIN/PALIN 08

[TheHandyman]

Or the belief that GOD did not like technology. Or maybe he really did live during the 14th Century as the Pope!

[frappe]

...helped invent "blackberry brandy"?

[gascelebrations]

I almost want him to win just so I can see how more surreal this gets. It's like living in a Dali painting.

[Gib]

There is a lot of death in Dali paintings ...

[RobinSeattle]

Lotta death in Iraq, too.

[TheHandyman]

Except one can understand a Dali Painting and it does have some redeeming value as a positive force in Life. I can't say that for the dessicated mind that is McNsane!

[bolingo]

My favourite comment of the day..lol!! I also have to ask myself if this is really happening...

[Johnjlws]

This just in...

"On further examination, 'the Blackberry,' turned out to be a miniature Etch-A-Sketch. The McCain camp took full credit for 'the Maverick's' involvement in the design and bringing to fruition of the miniature Etch-A-Sketch, code named m-EAS (pronounced 'myass'), stating 'while war hero and Maverick was a P.O.W. and not sitting around his kitchen table because he didn't have one, Maverick envisioned the idea. Later, during a brief reprieve in the yard at Halloween a guard came up and drew the m-EAS in the sand with his foot. 'It was a shared moment between two capitalist,' said Maverick."

The MSM has applauded "the Maverick's" boldness and foresight. Polls indicate most the American people are waiting to see which of the candidates will win "Dancing with the Stars" where Obama is a heavy favorite. "War hero and P.O.W. Maverick injuries prevent him from dancing," relayed "the Maverick's" campaign."

[Jasonk]

With the Telecommunications Act of 1996, the Senate passed the first major revision to telecommunications law in 62 years which provided the foundation for much of the cell phone and Internet regulation over the next decade. The bill passed 81-18 and was signed into law by President Clinton. McCain voted against the act.

In 2002, McCain authored the "Consumer Broadband Deregulation Act of 2002" which eliminated the requirement of the 1996 law that telecommunication companies provide access to competitors. It didn't pass.

In 2003, the Internet Tax Freedom Act was passed, putting in place a moratorium on taxes for activities on the Intenet. The bill had 11 cosponsors – McCain wasn't one of them. He did vote for the bill, but since it passed 97-3, that's definitely "guiding" with a small 'g.' Granted, this wasn't directly a bill about wireless, but since McCain doesn't seem to have authored any law on wireless technology, I'm having to search for connections.

http://www.dailykos.com/storyonly/2008/9/16/63238/2462/721/600320

[ramal]

Ha! Ha! So funny! Reminds me of when Poppy Bush didn't know what a grocery store barcode was.

[anleyang]

Doesn't remind you of when Al Gore said he invented the internet?

[Bitsko]

Actually he never claimed that. Do you read anything but the National Review?

[Gib]

I'm reading Gore's The Assault on Reason. Very impressive.

[SpoxLogic]

Concerning AL Gore and the invention of the Internet. Al Gore NEVER said he invented it, he said he put laws in place that helped with it growth. So, because of Gore, you my friend ramal, are able to post your not-so informed comments here.
In McCain's case, there is no way McCain could have helped invent the Blackberry, since it was invented in Canada!

[lissak]

And Sarah Palin invented Post Its.

[anleyang]

Am I wrong, or is this a truly irrelevant article to anything pertinent in the election? McCain didn't even say it. Geesh guys, you could turn a girl away from Obama with these foolish comments.

[MOwest]

This "boneheaded joke" is a distraction from McCain and his feeble, farcicle position on the economy.

[INDmind]

omg!

http://www.nypost.com/seven/09152008/postopinion/opedcolumnists/obama_tried_to_stall_gis_iraq_withdrawal_129150.htm

[HeIsTheOne]

First of all its in the NYPos, only good for wrapping dead fish in. Secondly, the writer has a history of making things up:

Jones’ Jonathan Schwarz has compiled a short summary of some of Taheri’s other fabrications:

The Amir Taheri Story
Amir Taheri is one of the strangest ingredients in America’s media soup. There may not be anyone else who simply makes things up as regularly as he does, with so few consequences.

http://irancoverage.com/2007/11/21/the-lies-of-amir-taheri/

[SpoxLogic]

Yikes! I wonder why only the NY Post and Fox News are carrying this?
Oh wait! Both belong to NewsCorp don't they? And NewsCorp is owned by...let me se..oh yes..RUPERT MURDOCH!

Could it be the other news agencies smell a rat?
Start some innuendo in print, then have your associate braodcast it. And viola!
If it's in print and on TV, then it must be true!

NOT!

[RustyGranite]

The Post?

Really?

I mean...really?

[Manx]

McCain is old enough to have invented the black berry, the plant.

[hypnus]

I don’t know about the Blackberry, but he’s sure perfected the political Dingleberry.

[leftoflennon]

OMG!

He thought till recently that it was a fruit and now he INVENTED it?

Will someone help this liar?!