McCain and the Computer

Senator McCain has been coming in for some mockery lately for having answered the "Mac or PC?" question from Politico.com with, "Neither, I am an illiterate." But before writing off the likely Republican nominee as a Luddite or an old fogey, allow us to contemplate the idea that Mr. McCain might be smarter than we all think.

Without a computer, he has more time to spend with his family and friends, time that he might have squandered surfing the Internet. Without a computer, he doesn't have to worry about fixing it when it breaks, or spend time transferring all his data to a new machine when the old one becomes obsolete. He doesn't have to wait for the one day a year that the local government will accept the old machine in the trash, while also worrying about wiping all the confidential data off the old machine so as not to fall victim to identity theft. He doesn't have to spend hours on hold with "technical support," only to finally reach someone who can barely speak English who will blame the problem on someone else.

He doesn't have to worry about electric storms taking out his broadband service, about his computer being taken over by viruses or spyware. He doesn't have to worry about falling victim to an Internet "phishing" scam or about blocking pop-up ads, about whether he has downloaded and enabled the latest version of flash or java or Windows Media Player or Firefox. He doesn't have to worry about the federal government finding inappropriate pictures that someone else has stored on his hard drive or about opponents in civil litigation trying to move for discovery on all of his e-mail.

He doesn't have to suffer through reading and deleting silly jokes and pictures forwarded from distant relatives. He doesn't have to spend time reading status updates of Facebook "friends" who are really just remote acquaintances. He doesn't have to worry about what the bloggers are saying about him. He saves a lot of money on all the online shopping he isn't doing. He doesn't have to worry about his stock portfolio by checking it incessantly online; he can just think about it when his monthly or quarterly statement arrives in the mail. He doesn't have to worry about accidentally sending the confidential memo to the whole staff. Truth is, given all the advantages of going computer-free, it's a wonder Mr. McCain doesn't have more company.