The Republican Media- No. 18

Did you hear the one about technology-averse John McCain inventing the Blackberry? No, he didn't say he invented it, but top policy advisor Douglas Holtz-Eakin said he helped create it. Holding a Blackberry, Holtz-Eakin (as quoted in startribune.com, Minneapolis) boasted on September 16 "He did this. Telecommunications in the United States, the premiere innovation in the past 15 years, comes right through the Commerce Committee. So you're looking at the miracle that John McCain helped create."

You might not have heard about it, because it didn't get nearly the play that Al Gore's remark about the Internet has, even today. On CNN's "Late Edition" on 3/9/99, Gore stated

During my service in the United States Congress, I took the initiative in creating the Internet. I took the initiative in moving forward a whole range of initiatives that have proven to be important to our country's economic growth and environmental protection, improvements in our educational system.

Snopes.com drew this apt analogy in May, 2005:

If President Eisenhower had said in the mid-1960s that he, while President, "created" the Interstate Highway System, we would not have seen dozens and dozens of editorials lampooning him for claiming he "invented" the concept of highways or implying that he personally went out and dug ditches across the country to help build the roadway. Everyone would have understood that Ike meant he was a driving force behind the legislation that created the highway system, and this was the very same concept Al Gore was expressing about himself with his Internet statement.

Even the startribune.com article noting the McCain campaign's statement couldn't resist the cheap shot against the former Vice-President, quipping "Move over, Al Gore. You may lay claim to the Internet, but John McCain's campaign is laying claim to the BlackBerry."

And then there was this comment on 9/4/08 from North Carolina Republican Rick Goddard, seeking a U.S. House seat, about black MSNBC reporter Ron Allen:

I’ll tell you one thing, I think we’re going to have a very, very strong, capable president in John McCain. Last night, Newt Gingrich disarmed a very uppity newscaster who tried to question him on the capabilities and leadership of Governor Palin. There’s simply no comparison between a governor and a community organizer….

.... which followed by only a few hours this comment by another Republican from North Carolina, U.S. Representative Lynn Westmoreland, about Barack Obama:

Just from what little I’ve seen of her and Mr. Obama, Sen. Obama, they’re a member of an elitist-class individual that thinks that they’re uppity.

You've probably not heard of these comments, which have been virtually ignored by the mainstream media. If, say, a Democratic legislator and aspiring Democratic legislator had made a parallel remark about Sarah Palin's gender, the attention would have eclipsed the "lipstick on a pig" furor.

And so it goes, in the land of the mythical "liberal media."