USA Today: Dems jumping all over McCain Camps claim of McCain helped create BlackBerry

[sabra]

http://blogs.usatoday.com/onpolitics/2008/09/mccain-the-blac.html

In just the past 20 minutes alone, we've gotten e-mails from spokesmen for the Democratic National Committee, Democratic presidential nominee Barack Obama's campaign and the liberal action group MoveOn.org that all want to call attention to this post at Jonathan Martin's Politico blog:

"Holtz-Eakin: McCain helped create BlackBerry."

The story is this: Jonathan reports that McCain economic adviser Douglas Holtz-Eakin held up his BlackBerry this morning and said to reporters that McCain "did this. ... Telecommunications of the United States is a premier innovation in the past 15 years, comes right through the Commerce committee, so you're looking at the miracle John McCain helped create and that's what he did."

...

Given that McCain's opponents have been quick to call attention to today's reports, we suspect you may be hearing more from them about this in coming hours and days. Will they try to say McCain claims to have invented the BlackBerry? Stay tuned.

[Me.]

1. An Al Gore Internet Moment!

[mth44sc]

2. Oh for cryin' out loud...

Its the economy stupid. Stay on message for one damn day. Please!

[sandnsea]

7. Thank you

Sometimes Democrats are really like 3 year olds playing with the shiny wrapping paper and ignoring the great gift in the box.

[dave29]

41. this dovetails nicely with the economy storyline, believe it or not.

.

[eShirl]

3. catnip.

[maseman]

4. They must have gotten some crack over the weekend at the McCain camp

They said McDiapers created the Blackberry today, Grandpa went off on Mika the MSNBC journalist looking very petty today, McCain was quoted on CNN as saying "Millions of Americans don't pay any taxes."

What the hell is up?

[mass independent]

6. Well he's right -

Millions of Americans don't pay taxes. They're called children. And apparently they're smarter than Johnny Boy.

[BumRushDaShow]

10. The millions are his millionaire friends, who actually get refunds...

while many children DO pay taxes! E.g., those who get survivor benefits from the federal gov't, etc.

[Bluenorthwest]

20. Tell that to Hanna Montana

The actual factual is that aside from those kids who actually work and earn, many have taxable income of other kinds...and on the other end of the spectrum, every child who pays a sales tax on a book is what? Paying taxes. So rich or poor, the fact is the majority of American kids pay taxes if only in the form of sales tax. Still, it is a tax.

[AllieB]

5. The creator of the blackberry-RIM-is a Canadian company.

So unless McCain was moonlighting in Canadian parliament, this is a huge gaffe.

[central scrutinizer]

12. Country First!

[AllieB]

15. More like 'Country Club First'

:D

[nichomachus]

39. But Palin can see Canada from her house

[dgibby]

8. Ha!

The only blackberry John McCain knows about is the one topping off his cornflakes!:rofl:

[renie408]

9. Holy Shit!! I thought it was a JOKE! n/t

[MichDem10]

11. He can invent the Blackberry but cant log onto the internets? WTF!

:wtf:

[calico1]

13. I think he meant these:

Still, they have been around for ages. Even long before McCain was born, so I don't know why he's taking credit.

:silly:

[CK_John]

14. Dick Tracy invented the cell phone. Not. n/t

[grantcart]

16. Christmas

[Willo]

17. Wow, this is obviously a distraction story and not a very good one.

McCain is surrounded by tons of lobbyists (130 by last count), who are either responsible for, related to or benefiting from - this economic crisis.

Anything he would possibly say on the subject would be an outright lie of catastrophic proportions.

I don't knock anybody commenting on the blackberry story, but may I suggest we make it a one-line zinger and then bring it home.

Fer instance: "Yeah, and my grandmother designed the Wii. Now, is there something in McCain's blackberry from Phil Gramm on how to fix this mess he created?"

[knixphan]

28. nice!

[Willo]

35. Hey Knixphan, how's things?

:hi:

[knixphan]

40. great! Heading to NC soon -

To assist with canvassing there (Charlotte). CA is safe, so I want my two hands to make a bigger impact.

:patriot:

[Willo]

42. Cool. Much success and give us reports.

[knixphan]

43. absolutely. Will do!

[Hope And Change]

18. K & R!

[slinkerwink]

19. Time to tie this around McCain's neck!

[grantcart]

23. but since he stopped talking with reporters all that wiggle room is gone

This one will stick because its so close to the Gore slur.

[slinkerwink]

21. McCain camp backpedaling on this--says it was a boneheaded joke by a staffer

[TwilightGardener]

27. They must think we're idiots--I read his statement in context, that was no joke.

And McBlackberry was touting his work on wireless just yesterday--this is a pushback against Obama's "out of touch, can't use computer" ad.

[Ichingcarpenter]

22. "I can see Russia from my house" & 'I invented the blackberry'

Today we learn to make Russian blackberry Pie........ I can see the next SNL

[truthisfreedom]

24. distraction

[timber84]

25. Nail on the head!

ECONOMY!!!!!!!!!!

[TwilightGardener]

26. Sometimes a gaffe is more helpful than all of the policy discussions in the world--

I say, keep Obama talking about issues, but never miss an opportunity to ridicule--ridicule works. It worked on Al Gore and John Kerry.

[ErinBerin84]

29. yeah

I mean, I don't really see harm in emailing reporters, it's not like the Obama campaign released a statement on it...just shows what a fucking cartoon this campaign has become.

edit: ok, I guess they did release a statement on it, but they drew more attention to the "fundamentals of the economy" statement as being more strange.

[BumRushDaShow]

30. Exactly.

Obama and Biden have been screaming "issues" at every venue they visit and the press have ignored them (and cut off their speeches if they do carry them at all). They have put out a ton of ads, both national and targeted to certain states (and parts of states) with "issues", and the press have ignored them.

The press feeds on sound-bites and if this is a sound-bite against McPalin, then that is what will get reported and laughed at by the press (and Dem supporters), which actually causes an "emotional reaction" among viewers and readers that underscores how ridiculous and desperate McPalin is.

[TwilightGardener]

31. McLame's campaign manager even said that this campaign isn't about issues--

OK. Let's go after Dipshit on his lies and lack of character, then. The Blackberry thing is a clear exaggeration of his Senate accomplishments. Democrats would be stupid not to spend at least a day punching him on this.

[BumRushDaShow]

34. Interestingly enough, the media is doing all the punching and spreading it around...

The Dems don't even need to do anything at this point! :rofl:

[Mudoria]

32. I've read this several times and I'm still trying to understand

where this staffer claims/insinuates McCain invented the BlackBerry. From my reading of it he's saying McCain's position on the Commerce committee helped the with the innovation of telecommunications today.

[BumRushDaShow]

33. In the article descriptions, the staffer waved his blackberry while making the statement.

I wish there were a video of this, it would be priceless!

[ErinBerin84]

37. it wasn't just a staffer, it was a top economic advisor.

And if they weren't embarrassed about it, they wouldn't have come out with a statement afterwards saying that it was just a "boneheaded joke". Either way (using this as proof of economic knowledge or whatever), it just makes McCain look silly. "This miracle"...lol. We know that he didn't say "invented", but neither did Al Gore, and Al Gore was more instrumental to the creation of the internet than McCain was to the blackberry.

[Veruca Salt]

36. K&R

:rofl:

[jfkraus]

38. What he meant was...

Just like Palin having foreign policy experience because she can "see Russia", McCain once "saw" a BlackBerry, therefore he helped create it. It's very logical.

[JustAnotherGen]

44. I'm emailing this

To my DEVICE LAUNCH TEAM contacts over at RIM tomorrow. Don't have their emails available tonight - can't VPN in for some reason.

They are really big about intellectual property up there. ;-)