McCain: Learning to get on the internet himself, Will not email or blog.

McCain sees himself in Teddy Roosevelt mold:

He said, ruefully, that he had not mastered how to use the Internet and relied on his wife and aides like Mark Salter, a senior adviser, and Brooke Buchanan, his press secretary, to get him online to read newspapers (though he prefers reading those the old-fashioned way) and political Web sites and blogs.

"They go on for me," he said. "I am learning to get online myself, and I will have that down fairly soon, getting on myself. I don't expect to be a great communicator, I don't expect to set up my own blog, but I am becoming computer literate to the point where I can get the information that I need."

Asked which blogs he read, he said: "Brooke and Mark show me Drudge, obviously. Everybody watches, for better or for worse, Drudge. Sometimes I look at Politico. Sometimes RealPolitics."

At that point, Cindy McCain, who had been intensely engaged with her BlackBerry, looked up and chastised her husband. "Meghan's blog!" she said, reminding him of their daughter's blog on his campaign Web site. "Meghan's blog," he said sheepishly.

As he answered questions, sipping a cup of coffee with his tie tight around his neck, his aides stared down at their BlackBerries.

As they tapped, McCain said he did not use a BlackBerry, though he regularly reads messages on those of his aides. "I don't e-mail; I've never felt the particular need to e-mail," McCain said.

There's the confirmation I was looking for.

McCain does not know how to get online.

This leads me to believe that McCain doesn't have a computer either, because getting online only requires opening up a browser.

I am surprised by this.



Back in 2004 I was shocked to find out that the internet candidate, Howard Dean, didn't read blogs online [ My video blog report ], he also had his staff do it for him.

I guess I shouldn't be shocked by these things anymore, but it's been four years...