the tindog coffeehouse

There’s some debate around the Interwebs about whether John McCain’s computer illiteracy makes him a less qualified presidential candidate. (The liberal blogs and tech blogs seem to think it does. No surprises there.)

Andrew Romano at Newsweek doesn’t think it matters:

For one thing, McCain’s computer illiteracy doesn’t reflect a lack of curiosity–it reflects a lack of necessity. Over the past 10 years, most adult Americans have encountered and explored computers primarily in the workplace, where the ability to communicate and find information on the Internet has gradually become a required skill. But McCain’s job in the U.S. Senate–where all communication and information has to be filtered through staffers–has actually made fluency more difficult to achieve (or at least less necessary). When aides are responding to your messages and briefing you on every imaginable subject, the incentive to get online sort of disappears.

Secondly, even if McCain had spent some time surfing the Web over the last decade, it’s highly unlikely that he would’ve amassed enough technological expertise to single-handedly craft appropriate public policy responses to the “upheavals” mentioned above.

When Bill Clinton was running for President in 1992, Republicans chastised him over his lack of military experience, arguing that someone who had never served in the military was unqualified to serve as Commander-in-Chief. Democrats, of course, disagreed.

It seems like this is essentially the same argument. Can someone who has little to no experience with technology be qualified to lead one of the most technologically advanced countries in the world? According to the logic of the Democrats of the ’90s, he can.

I agree to an extent. No, it doesn’t really matter for the reasons mentioned in the Newsweek column above. Plus, out of all the various issues we’re facing right now, tech issues are probably not at the top of the list. Still, this sort of thing just helps to reinforce the characterization that McCain is too old and out of touch to be President, which certainly doesn’t help his campaign.

Personally, I’d be more concerned with his inexperience in economics than in technology.