DHE: No McCain, No BlackBerry
Hm . . . it seems Doug Holtz-Eakin thinks John McCain invented the BlackBerry:
Asked what work John McCain did as Chairman of the Senate Commerce Committee that helped him understand the financial markets, the candidate’s top economic adviser wielded visual evidence: his BlackBerry.
“He did this,” Douglas Holtz-Eakin told reporters this morning, holding up his BlackBerry. “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.”
I guess I only sort of feel that the media owes it to us to deliberately misconstrue this remark the way they deliberately misconstrued Al Gore’s talk about taking the lead on the legislation that led to the creation of the Internet. But on the other hand, there’s enough legitimate McCain material out there so who needs it.
Meanwhile, all such cracks aside, what on earth is Holtz-Eakin talking about here? I’m sure McCain’s work on the Commerce Committee has had impact on the course of our telecom-related gadgets, but he’s hardly been doing this stuff all alone, and the device in question was developed by a Canadian company so it’s hard to see how it hinged crucially on any particular aspect of US telecom policy. More to the point — how would John McCain’s putative expertise in telecom regulation help him understand the turmoil in the financial markets?
And even on the very narrow point at issue, perhaps Holtz-Eakin isn’t aware that McCain was voted against the 1996 Telecommunication Act. I think he was the only Republican to do so. It was some kind of crazy McCain stunt where there was a giant, complicated bill with tons of provisions that was, on the whole, a substantial improvement over the status quo but where the nature of the beast was that everyone had some complaints with the text. So McCain took the opportunity to point out some perceived flaws and cast a cranky “no” vote against a critical piece of bipartisan legislation.
72 Responses to “DHE: No McCain, No BlackBerry”
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September 16th, 2008 at 11:28 am
Holtz-Eakin seems to have a knack for bad sound bites.
September 16th, 2008 at 11:30 am
“I guess I only sort of feel that the media owes it to us to deliberately misconstrue this remark the way they deliberately misconstrued Al Gore’s talk about taking the lead on the legislation that led to the creation of the Internet.”
The misconstruetion (why isn’t that a word?) doesn’t work nearly as well in this case because the quote didn’t come out of the candidate’s mouth.
September 16th, 2008 at 11:35 am
Given the fact that the future of telecommunications hinges on John McCain isn’t it irresponsible for him not to know how to use the internet. Does he just ask his expert friends what to do?
September 16th, 2008 at 11:39 am
Don’t you know this is an old joke in Washington?
What is the difference between the telecom and financial industries?
John McCain’s lipstick.
September 16th, 2008 at 11:40 am
Actually, we could all use now a summary guide of all the communications related legislation that Al Gore championed. We may still discover that what he said back in 2000 was factually true.
September 16th, 2008 at 11:47 am
…you’re looking at the miracle John McCain helped create
only two more and he truly will be St. John McCain.
and i thought obama was the one with the God complex…
September 16th, 2008 at 11:48 am
Does this make McCain responsible for the last week’s commuter train crash?
Text messaging figures in L.A. train wreck probe
September 16th, 2008 at 11:49 am
Why are telecommunications so much more advanced in European and Asian countries? This nation is still playing catchup to our competitors.
September 16th, 2008 at 11:52 am
1) This is a flaming crock of shit. The Bush Administration did a lot to cause the collapse of the telecomms industry in the 2001-2003 timeframe. Even the Wall Street Journal asked why — in a February 2003? editorial.
2) What happened was that there had been several major innovations in fiber optics in the Clinton Administration — ability to send multiple beams (hence, doubling the bandwidth) plus erebium doping to remove the need for electronic amplifiers every 100 miles or so.
3) So several firms raced to grab right of way and deploy fiber optic across the USA. The potential VALUE given to the country was HUGE.
A massive reduction in fuel consumption because corporate meetings could be held by teleconference instead of constantly flying engineers and managers around the country.
4)The ability to give the USA a MASSIVE advantage in innovation — because product development could be speeded up by a factor of 10. Because customers, engineers, managers could rapidly review, comment upon and evaluate product plans /specifications without the big time delays imposed by business travel.
5) It all fell apart –because the Republican are stupid, selfish fuckups. Because our new President was a drunken moron who, in spite of every advantage, was looking at bankruptcy in middle age until he sold his ass to some rich men. Because our Vice President was in the oil business and seethed at how Silicon Valley had made his CEO performance look so incompetent.
6) A number of Silicon Valley firms were killed off by terroristic sabotage — rolling blackouts caused by Enron’s yanking on the electrical grid and the government’s refusal to intervene. Hard to run a server farm in those conditions.
7) But the major collapse was caused by long-running regulatory uncertainty. When the long haul outfits went to connect to their customers, they found PUBLIC UTILITIES –the Bell Companies like Verizon — wouldn’t let them . Long legal and political dispute which the Republican Congress dragged its feet on for YEARS –because the Republicans were receiving a blizzard of donations from both AT&T and the Bells and saw no reason for the gravy train to stop.
September 16th, 2008 at 12:00 pm
Petey: The misconstruetion (why isn’t that a word?)…
If anything should be a word, it should be “misconstrual,” as it’s based on the existing “construal.”
September 16th, 2008 at 12:00 pm
Over at Huffington Post they quote a McCain spokesperson writing this off as “a boneheaded joke by a staffer.” So, McCain’s top financial policy adviser is now just another run of the mill “staffer”. Ouch.
September 16th, 2008 at 12:01 pm
It works for me to call out the McCain campaign for saying he invented the Blackberry. They said it while trying to paint a false picture of McCain. All of the lies they tell are in the service of painting the false picture of McCain and Palin that they want the election to be decided on. It is very important to drive home the absurdity of this false picture. You are doing a fabulous job at it, Matt.
September 16th, 2008 at 12:07 pm
1996 — that was the year, Barack Obama kicked off his political career at Bill Ayers’s and Bernadine Dohrn’s house. McCain voted against the telecom bill because it was larded up with special provisions for the various interests.
September 16th, 2008 at 12:13 pm
Yglesias: “a substantial improvement over the status quo”?
I forget sometimes how amazingly uninformed Matt can be — yet he nevertheless feels obligated to offer up opinions.
Just off the top of my head, we’ve got a substantial concentration of broadcast media — Clear Channel Uber Alles — thanks to the Telecommunications Act of 1996.
Anyone with the least involvement with these issues, at least from a progressive standpoint,knows what a disaster this Act has been.
September 16th, 2008 at 12:17 pm
Yeah the 1996 Telecommunications act was a “big improvement” like invading Iraq was a big improvement over Saddam.
Just goes to show, if a pundit is wrong on the biggest international disaster in US history, he will tend to be wrong on other important things, like the impact of the 1996 telecommunications act.
1996 Telecommunications act allowed the massive republican conglomeration of media ownership that has lead us to where we are politically today, screwed.
e.g. “Al Gore was a liar but John McCain is a maverick”.
Anyone with any self respect would have found a different line of work, hell even Churchill stepped out of public life after Gallipoli.
September 16th, 2008 at 12:18 pm
Has anybody else noticed how many McCain flubs are dismissed a jokes? Even when they get called down on stupid campaign ads they say “can’t you take a joke.”
September 16th, 2008 at 12:21 pm
The Republicans have learned a very important lesson. Start off with a lie, and every attempt to refute it will only make your base believe it even more.
September 16th, 2008 at 12:24 pm
What’s hilarious is that the Blackberry was Invented by A CANADIAN company — Research in Motion. See
http://www.rim.net/company/index.shtml
So has John McCain also been serving in the Canadian Parliament all this time?
What does he do– sneak into the US Senate Cloak Room during roll calls and ShaZAM — flies to Ottawa?
And picks up a duty free French translator along the way?
http://www.parl.gc.ca/common/index.asp?Language=F
September 16th, 2008 at 12:29 pm
the quote didn’t come out of the candidate’s mouth
Well, in the case of Al Gore, the quote attributed to him didn’t come out of his mouth either.
We may still discover that what he said back in 2000 was factually true.
What Al Gore actually said in 2000 (actually, it was probably 1999) was factually true. No less a liberal that Newt Gingrich admits as much. Here’s what Gingrich said on C-SPAN on Sept 1, 2000:
(Read all the gory details in this Daily Howler post.)
September 16th, 2008 at 12:30 pm
Although I’m certainly willing to believe that John McCain occasionally takes the wrong plane transfer at Denver Airport and ends up wondering into the wrong national legislature.
I just hope he’s not wearing his bathrobe when he does it.
September 16th, 2008 at 12:31 pm
Don, off topic but I saw a poll today where 35% said that, if forced to choose, they’d pick their Blackberry over their spouse. My wife is probably in that 35%.
September 16th, 2008 at 12:34 pm
I’m perfectly willing to go to the logical endpoint and declare the entire McCain/Palin candidacy one big joke.
September 16th, 2008 at 12:37 pm
John McCain was sitting in the Canadian Parliament recently when they announced that the Prime Minister had Dissolved it.
Looking around at the members leaving, a confused McCain muttered “Damm it, I knew that fucking CHeney would go too far.”
September 16th, 2008 at 12:39 pm
I do like the switch up the campaign went on. From “he’s learning about computers” to “fuck it, he invented the Blackberry”. It’s interesting, they must see the technical illiteracy as some sort of negative they need to address because just yesterday McCain himself was taking credit for the wireless communications boom over the last decade or so.
http://thesebastards.blogspot.com/
September 16th, 2008 at 12:49 pm
Little known fact: John McCain personally welded most of the tubes through which the Internet travels.
September 16th, 2008 at 1:05 pm
Re O’Neal’s comment “35% said that, if forced to choose, they’d pick their Blackberry over their spouse. My wife is probably in that 35%. ”
————-
What can I say?
You shouldn’t have bought her the model with the soundless vibrator alert.
September 16th, 2008 at 1:13 pm
Matt
Have a look at Gallups latest daily poll on the economy and presidency. Especially the numbers for “well being”. As of today, 45% are saying they are thriving and 51% are saying they are struggling. Even so, 47% of the respondents said they are for McCain and 46 said they are for Obama. Do you think thos numbers provide insight into how race is playing a factor in the election?
September 16th, 2008 at 1:19 pm
Heh, and it’s worth noting that telecommunications technology development (at least infrastructure-wise) is one area in which the US lags Europe and Japan badly. And even beyond that, Research In Motion, makers of the Blackberry is a Canadian company.
September 16th, 2008 at 1:20 pm
Don, I asked her and I’m OK for now.
September 16th, 2008 at 1:22 pm
It seems like these days Team Chicago is vastly outplaying Team Arizona in winning media cycles.
Lipstickgate was a dud, even though is was orchestrated when McCain had momentum in the polls from his convention and VP bounces.
Liesgate was a smash hit that will probably rebound during the debates when both Palin and McCain are directly challenged on statements that have appeared in Palin’s stump speech and McCain’s commercials and be forced on national television to evade or backtrack.
One thought, Obama said that he held back on Clinton in a way he would not with McCain out of respect for Clinton being a democrat. I was worried, but Obama officially tried to cool down snipergate and is fanning bridgegate and sleazyliesgate. So I guess he was telling the truth.
Another thought, I read in some comments section, maybe this one, maybe Kos, maybe 538, that Ferraro gave Mondale a 16pt vp bounce that pulled him even with Reagan. That gives perspective to the Palin bounce.
Last thought, we aren’t going to appreciate this for a while, but I think the left-wing internet has already become a more effective political influence force than right-wing talk radio.
While the left wing is deciding which Palin scandal to put next in the queue, the right wing is making a story about an Obama $28000 a plate fund raiser. It is laughable how much that is not going to work, but it will give Obama a chance to revisit housegate.
Really last thought, being unable to tie your own shoes or comb your own hair is not presidential, especially when Palin is your VP nominee. Team Obama is trying to get that out without its hands on it. Like the email commercial with a picture of hands on a keyboard, the hope was that the right wing would run with it. It didn’t work. This time …
Team Obama is doing a good job right now. I’d say, contra intrade, that Obama is a substantial favorite to win right now.
September 16th, 2008 at 1:32 pm
Arnold Evans, wait for “post-birth abortion”, “sabotage of Iraqi negotiations”, and “Annenberg Challenge”. I expect these are in the queue. Also, most people have never heard of Rezko.
September 16th, 2008 at 1:52 pm
I’ve heard of Rezko, not the other three. Let me google them ….
Dud, dud, dud and dud.
On the other hand, it is stupid to argue about predictions. We’ll just have to see.
“Post birth abortions” vs. “rape and incest exceptions for abortion laws”. We’ll just have to see.
But as of today, Petey’s “McCain is better at winning media cycles” theory seems spectacularly wong.
September 16th, 2008 at 2:11 pm
“I saw a poll today where 35% said that, if forced to choose, they’d pick their Blackberry over their spouse. My wife is probably in that 35%.”
If I was married to E. O’Neal I think I’d prefer an Apple Newton to my spouse.
September 16th, 2008 at 2:12 pm
It is amusing how some people still believe Rezko is a magic bullet. That story got flogged to death in the primaries, and ended up doing diddly. Which is because it is a non-story.
September 16th, 2008 at 2:32 pm
tomemos, I’m learning that self-deprecatory humor works no better on blogs than in presidential campaigns. If I were running for president, that would be in a thirty-second ad.
September 16th, 2008 at 3:52 pm
and this is the essence of Sir Maverick the Phony. he draws a lot of attention to himself with inconsequential votes, where the outcome is assured. And somehow, for all McCain’s supposed leadership, the US has the slowest broadband of any advanced country, and you have to go to Japan or Finland to get the coolest new cell phones.
September 16th, 2008 at 4:12 pm
E. O’Neal, I am sorry. I actually thought it was a nice line on your part, but the riposte was just too tempting to pass up.
September 16th, 2008 at 4:20 pm
Exactly correct. The 1996 act was bad in almost every possible way. If McCain really voted against it, that’s actually a net positive for him. Independents who hated Obama’s FISA flipflop would tend to say hell no to the 1996 Telecommunications Act as well.
September 16th, 2008 at 4:28 pm
tomemos, no offense. My kids don’t laugh at my jokes or listen to my opinions, so I turn to blogs. Uh-oh. To quote a contemporary philosopher, oops, I did it again!
September 16th, 2008 at 4:42 pm
This election has brought out the absolute worst in this country. To some McCain and Palin can do no wrong even though the evidence says otherwise. This country, founded over 200 years ago only afforded black Americans the right to vote when Obama was 4 years old (1965) That is paramount in understanding what this campaign is faced with.
September 16th, 2008 at 4:47 pm
The answer is: “misconstruction.”
September 16th, 2008 at 5:03 pm
I love it. When it’s lipstick on a pig, you all are whining that we’re not focusing on real issues.
Now, you’re only too happy to scream and shout about a comment that has absolutely nothing to do with real issues.
Liberals: Hypocrites to the core.
September 16th, 2008 at 5:58 pm
Uh, a Canadian company invented the BlackBerry. RIM baby.
September 16th, 2008 at 7:36 pm
As I said chez Ezra, the BlackBerry found a market niche for one big reason: the US mobile comms market was, and still is, fucked up. Competing standards, providers that didn’t allow out-of-network SMS, etc. Travelling from Europe to the US in the early 2000s was like stepping back five years in terms of mobile tech, and it’s only just now catching up.
The BlackBerry isn’t a symbol of innovation. It’s a symbol of how to kludge your way to success in a fucked-up market.
September 16th, 2008 at 7:38 pm
Barry: when you’ve apologized to Al Gore, come back. Otherwise, ‘koff.
September 16th, 2008 at 8:34 pm
Barry,
The substantive point is that John McCain’s current rhetoric about addressing problems in the financial markets is utterly unsupported by anything he has done in his long career in Congress. The fact his spokesperson told a whopper about McCain’s role in creating Blackberries when pressed on this issue just underscores how they have no real answer to the substantive question. In that sense, this is just like McCain’s whopper about Palin being the foremost expert on energy in the United States–the substantive point is that Palin has no real foreign policy expertise, and the fact that McCain told a whopper when pressed on that question just underscores that fact.
September 16th, 2008 at 9:30 pm
I see the Telecommunications Act of 1996 has already been disparaged. I’m glad to hear McCain voted against it, actually. It has good and bad parts, but at the time, when the web was just beginning to take off, it included the “Communications Decency Act” which threatened to ban anything even mildly offensive from appearing on the public Internet. That anti-free-speech provision alone should have kept any conscientious Senator from voting for the bill.
September 16th, 2008 at 9:48 pm
Ah yes so many lies, flip flops, outburst, insane policy proposals, irresponsible choice of a VP candidate, goofs and gaffes, so few advertising dollars (even if one is Obama).
Sigh. No room for sly word twisting or creative editing.
Still it would be much less than fair for the press to hype this to pay back for the “Al Gore invented the internet chorus” because while both Gore and Holtz-Eakin stress the role of legislators in the development of technology Al Gore, fought tirelessly (and no one can be more tiresomely tireless than Al Gore) to convince his colleagues to appropriate money to build the internet until it was large enough to take off. That’s why he was awarded a webby when it was too late.
McCain sat in the Chairman’s chair, collected contributions from the firms whose regulation he was supposed to oversee, and did favors for Lowell Paxson presumably not because Paxson hired a hot lobbyist. He was there in a position to help or hurt the communications revolution. Basically he didn’t do much (which compared to his economic advisor Phil Graham is outstanding but I ain’t voting for him either).
Tell about something that he actually did Doug.
September 16th, 2008 at 9:52 pm
Actually Holtz-Eakin is learning from his boss.
When asked about Palin’s foreign policy credentials, McCain said “Energy. She knows more about energy than probably anyone in America” just before she claimed that Alaska produced 20% of energy produced in the USA.
Now when asked about banks, Holtz_Eakin says that McCain is responsible for the blackberry.
I predict that McCain will denounce the greedy overpaid foreign CEO of Research in Motion for making keyboards that prevent tortured former POWs from using the internet, because he can’t even use a normal sized keyboard, and the keys are so damn small.
September 16th, 2008 at 10:14 pm
McCain oversaw the Commerce Committee when it authorized the FCC(through the Omnibus budget Reconciliation Acts of 1993 and 1997) to conduct spectrum auctions. The spectrum frequencies/licenses that have been auctioned have been won mostly by wireless providers (e.g., Verizon, AT&T, Sprint, Cingular, T-mobile, etc.), who have introduced over the years better and better wireless devices, including the Blackberry and now the iphone. I suppose McCain’s argument is that without the procompetitive policy of spectrum auctions, we probably wouldn’t have in this country the vibrant wireless industry we currently have (although many people argue it could be even more innovative and vibrant if even more spectrum was freed up to be auctioned).
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