Email

Obama is running this ad, which makes a big deal out of McCain's supposed inability to use email. As Jonah Goldberg found by using Google, McCain, doesn't use email much, because of the injuries he suffered as POW makes using a keyboard is painful. Great ad for Obama; make fun, albeit indirectly, of a war hero's wounds and piss off the large percentage of American's who don't use email. Two for the price of one.

This reminds me that this is the second time in recent history that the Republicans have nominated a disabled man for President, the other being Bob Dole. Dole, like McCain, never made much of his disability, and never used it for political effect. I brought up Dole because it gives me the opportunity to tell one of my favorite stories. It's actually my wife's story, but I'll tell it anyway.

During the 96 election, my Wife and I were living in very liberal city. My wife enrolled in the local Junior College to take a few classes. Not surprisingly, many of classes degenerated into liberal rants by the teacher, backed by the class. In one class (I think it was American literature) th topic of the day was the evilness of Bob Dole. In the class was a young man in a wheel chair. He became quite agitated and told the class they didn't know what they were talking about. And then he told his story. It seemed that he had within the past year suffered the injury that had placed him in the wheel chair. While he was still in recovery, and come to deal with the fact that he was now a paraplegic, he got a phone call. From Bob Dole. Dole had somehow heard his story and wanted to encourage him. This liberal city was not in Kansas. So the evil Bob Dole, Senate Majority Leader, had found time to try to lift the spirits of a young man who was not even his constituent. I don't really know what to make of this story except that it demonstrates that not all politicians are complete jerks. The trouble is, it is damn difficult to know who they are.