Comments on: Batallions of Hackers vs Soldiers and Presidential Computer Literacy

By: Dustin

Dustin — Sun, 21 Sep 2008 20:16:48 +0000

I wouldn’t know, but I imagine that most of a President’s days are spent reading documnts and talking to people in the Oval Office. I don’t think productivity would be a real issue.

On the other hand, I think awareness of cyber threats is important. Would an older, more conventional military type consider a cyber attack on an enemy state? Something tells me that Obama would be more likely to embrace such a strategy and realize that it may indeed me a more powerful and crippling blow than a conventional military strike. These options are already on the table; the question is what options would the commander in chief be willing to give thoughtful consideration to?

There are a few things that have come up in the comments I’d like to address. FIrst, what makes Dudley believe that Obama is a “Chicago politician in the worst sense of the word”? That’s a very strong statement and I see no information anywhere to support it. Other than the preacher and the ex-weatherman, I’m also not aware of any bad associations that Obama has. What is obvious, however, is that he’s capable of assembling some pretty smart people. To have beaten Hillary Clinton for the Democratic nomination is quite a feat. McCain, on the other hand, does have the Keating Five question and more recently and more importantly to me, the Phil Gramm connection. Why on Earth would he pick that guy to advise his campaign on economic matters? Talk about clinging to old, failed ideas. It’s also worth noting that before the gaffe about America bing a bunch of whiners, it was widely thought that if McCain had won, Gramm would be nominated to head up Treasury. That’s a pretty scary thought to me. There’s more. In the last few weeks the McCain Campaign has hired some of the people who helped throw his campaign under the bus in 2000, and these people did it in a very underhanded way. That’s well-known.

When it comes down to it, no matter who wins I think we’ll have better leadership than we’ve had over the last eight years. Clearly I have my preference, but I’m going to have a party on inauguration day either way. Seriously.

By the way, this blog doesn’t get along with Firefox 3 at all. I can’t see half of what I’m typing.

By: Dudley Bokoski

Dudley Bokoski — Thu, 18 Sep 2008 20:47:29 +0000

Computer literacy is a reasonable indicator of intellectual curiosity
but then again so is what books candidates read. I’m interested in
what they know about history, because it gives context to their
decision making, but nobody seems to engage them in those discussions.

In fairness to Senator McCain, it should be mentioned that part of
the reason he isn’t a computer user is that his injuries as a POW
were severe enough to leave him limited in his ability to type. I’ve
seen reports he has trouble even getting his arms above his head.
Oddly enough, his physical condition and age aren’t being discussed
much.

In the interest of fairness, I would mention that I won’t be voting
for either candidate this fall. I don’t know how we’ll ever reform
the primary process, but if there was ever evidence of a need to it’s
the selection of Obama and McCain as standard bearers for their
parties. Obama is a Chicago politician in the worst sense of the
word and McCain’s ethical problems include the Keating scandal and
a disturbing tendency to cut the rug out from under his own party
if it served his on personal interests. What a choice!

By: jg

jg — Thu, 18 Sep 2008 15:29:47 +0000

I think the comments are kinda missing the point of the post. It’s not that McCain and Obama won’t be surrounded with capable advisors, it’s more a question of how the president responds to threat assessments.

By: Zach W

Zach W — Wed, 17 Sep 2008 16:49:57 +0000

I agree that more computer literacy can lead to more efficiency. It can also help you to better understand the intricacies of potential electronic attacks.
I find it hard to believe, however that a man who doesn’t know how to actually check his e-mail will therefore not be able to understand how e-mail works. No president fully understands the details of our military technology. They couldn’t explain nuclear fusion beyond a one minute summary. Many can’t even pronounce “nucLEAr fusion”. This does not mean they can not be ready for the implications that nuclear attacks could cause.

A president is not a “know all” being. Like any good business person, they align themselves with others who supplement their shortcomings and they listen to those people very carefully before coming to their own conclusions.

Bottom line, I’d like to know that our president is at least as good as the average consumer with technology, but that is not necessarily a determining factor in his effectiveness.

By: Wil

Wil — Wed, 17 Sep 2008 00:48:56 +0000

Tweet. Penalty. Piling on!
I’ll try this again since Mark (or his minions) erased my first comment this morning at 6:13 am.
In 2000, Jacob Weisberg in a Slate.com article headlined “McCain’s Web Explosion” writes
“Six months ago, no one would have pegged McCain as the most cybersavvy of this year’s crop of candidates. At 63, he is the oldest of the bunch and because of his war injuries, he is limited in his ability to wield a keyboard. But McCain’s job as chairman of the Senate commerce committee forced him to learn about the Internet early on, and young Web entrepreneurs such as Jerry Yang and Jeff Bezos fascinate him. Well before he announced his exploratory committee, McCain had assimilated the notion that the Web could be vital to the kind of insurgent, anti-establishment campaign he wanted to run.” http://www.slate.com/id/74812/(Remember Slate isn’t a Republican rag)
That’s in 2000 when most of us were still in short pants.
Kevin over at Wizbang.com writes “Trippi Praised McCain’s “First Bold Attempt To Harness The Power Of The Internet”. Yes that Joe (I helped Howard Dean) Trippi.
Trippi writes “and I closely followed John McCain’s insurgent Republican presidential bid in 2000, the first national campaign to attempt to make use of the Internet.” and
“And it’s how a Republican Senator like John McCain could use the Internet to raise $6.4 million after his shocking win in the New Hampshire primary.” this from his book
The Revolution Will Not Be Televised: Democracy, the Internet, and the Overthrow of Everything.
And this was all in 2000. Read all about it at http://wizbangblog.com/content/2008/09/13/trippi-praised-mccains-first-bold-attempt-to-harness-the-power-of-the-internet.php
So Googlers, do some real research and get to the truth.
McCain is very Internet savvy NOW and has been for years.
This is just another smearby the drive-by-media.

By: Geoff

Geoff — Tue, 16 Sep 2008 22:13:24 +0000

Nuance. People are missing the nuance of this post. Does our potential leader understand the issues of our time and how to deal with them in a 21st century manner? This is a very valid question. Well done.

By: kayce

kayce — Tue, 16 Sep 2008 21:13:10 +0000

I find it odd that this might be the issue you can’t get beyond. I just read your previous posts on how to tax wealth, and the CEO’s severance pays and found them to be insightful. Obama wants the people and companies to be beholden to the government in as many ways as his potential position will allow. That seems much more of an issue especially to entrepreneurs, like yourself, then whether or not McCain is versed in Javascript.

I agree that this election can basically be boiled down to who has better judgement, and I’d rather have the people McCain chooses to associate with on both sides of the aisle than the radicals and elitists Obama has chosen to surround himself with.

By: Brad Russell

Brad Russell — Tue, 16 Sep 2008 20:36:56 +0000

Saying that John McCain needs to be computer literate in order to make decisions to protect Americaagainst digital attacks is about as accurate as saying Barack Obama needs a military background in order to make decisions to protect America against military threats.

By: Dave O

Dave O — Tue, 16 Sep 2008 17:10:16 +0000

@nick: I’ve seen that quote- I’m looking for more than a self-deprecating remark to demonstrate his “illiteracy”. BTW- since the time of that remark he has also said that he is spending more time on the computer (a simple Google search would have shown you that).

By: Shawn

Shawn — Tue, 16 Sep 2008 15:08:56 +0000

Computer literacy or lack thereof is not an indicator of who will make a good president and who will not.

As you said, there is no way any person could be 100% versed in any subject that the presidency will need to deal with. A good president is someone who will surround himself with knowledgeable people, listen to their advice, learn what he has to and make a decision.

Obama has repeatedly shown that he is not a good judge of character which makes me believe that he would not pick the right people as advisor.

McCain, for all his faults, has shown that he is willing to listen to differing viewpoints, which, I believe, would make him an effective president.

Whether or not he can send a text message or email is irrelevent — they have aids for that sort of thing.