McCain, Email, and War Injuries

This story just keeps getting better. So by now you've heard that Obama has an ad out (unless he has pulled it by now) that claims McCain is so old, he doesn't even email and that it turns out McCain can't type because of the damage inflicted upon him while he was a POW.

More details about this story continue to unfold. Ace of Spades is covering the story and points out this Forbes Online article.

In certain ways, McCain was a natural Web candidate. Chairman of the Senate Telecommunications Subcommittee and regarded as the U.S. Senate's savviest technologist, McCain is an inveterate devotee of email. His nightly ritual is to read his email together with his wife, Cindy. The injuries he incurred as a Vietnam POW make it painful for McCain to type. Instead, he dictates responses that his wife types on a laptop. "She's a whiz on the keyboard, and I'm so laborious," McCain admits.

So it turns out he is email savvy, he just can't type because of his war injuries.

The Instapundit post on this subject has exploded. Glenn notes:

Yes, McCain's 2000 campaign was famous at the time for its pioneering use of the Internet. Really, whatever Obama's paying his people, it's too much...

The Slate is a pretty non-conservative source--you'd think Obama's camp would be familiar with it.

Drudge has picked up this story. My access logs are dominated for the last hours with searches like "Obama ad email McCain war injuries". Let the backlash begin, I guess.

The real point of this whole mess is not that Obama set out to taunt McCain about his war injuries in a national ad. He's not that mean-spirited or foolish. The point is that the Obama campaign is unraveling before the eyes of a nation and it is really a rather remarkable spectacle. Obama declares he is going to get tough and the first course of action is to release an ad that is both incorrect and unwittingly insulting. What happened to the campaign message of hope and change? I'm pretty sure the new message is not "wild accusations made without even a little background research". Talking with a friend tonight we both agreed Obama is so far way from staying on his campaign themes and message that it is astounding.

Glenn at Instapundit also adds:

On that note, reader Amy L. notes that Obama was recently touting his experience managing his campaign as evidence of his executive ability. That argument isn't looking as strong after the past couple of weeks.

Indeed. If this is how he and his staff handle the pressure of--dare I say it--a hillbilly hockey mom entering the race, how is he ready to handle the pressures of being President of the United States?