The Off-Line American

McCain admits he's a Net newbie. But does that affect whether he should be President?

Susan Walsh / AP

The desk in Sen. John McCain's, R-Ariz., office on Capitol Hill Monday, July 21, 2008.

It's hard to tell exactly how much or how little John McCain knows about the Inter net. In January he spoke to Politico.com about his computing habits: "I am an illiterate that has to rely on my wife for all of the assistance that I can get." In July he confessed to the New York Times that he has people surf the Web for him. "I don't e-mail," he added. "I've never felt the particular need to e-mail."

Since then, his staff has done some backpedaling on the subject, but it's pretty clear that McCain is not leet (élite,...

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