Who needs the interwebs?

This can’t be serious.  Taking a cue from computer illiterate Presidential candidate John McCain, the Wall Street Journal’s Lee Gomes argues that the next president should avoid computers:

It’s a fair question to ask: Can someone who never touches a computer truly be in touch with what is happening in the world? The computer industry has worked very hard over the past few decades to cause us to suspect as much. But what about the opposite question: Does anyone who spends all day in front of a PC, forging a river of data posing as information, have any time to think? [...]

If I were the chief of staff at the White House, I would have some sort of computer, not in the Oval Office itself, since it wouldn’t match the furniture, but one office away. I’d push the president to spend, say, 20 minutes a day on the machine — whether he would complain about the limit or about the mandated time. [...]

The severe time rationing is necessary because a computer, far from making you more productive, instead loads you down with things to do, and it’s important for the machine to know who is boss. Most people don’t have the luxury of off-loading their email-reading chores to a group of competent assistants. It’s an office perk that presidents are still important enough to deserve. [...]

Only someone who doesn’t the value of the internet as a communication tool could write a column as vapid and useless as this one.  Regardless of whether or not computers inhibit thinking (which I think is sort of a ridiculous claim to make), it’s simply the case that you can’t function in the modern world without at least a rudimentary understanding of computer technology and the internet.  And yes, that even goes for presidents.

Moreover, just as we’ve used the internet to redefine many aspects of our lives – interpersonal relationships, research, business, etc. – I think we can use the internet to change the way we interact with our government.  Part of what is fascinating about Obama is how he seems very serious about using the internet to transform the way we think about and perform politics (his campaign is already a great start).  An administration with a savvy understanding of the internet could use it for a whole host of things; chief among them making government a lot more transparent than it is.

Frankly, the fact that John McCain can’t even manage his email is as much a strike against him as anything else.