Should the President know how to use a computer?

His mother may be queen of the actual highway but John McCain has run into some difficulties on the information equivalent. The Huffington Post recently posted a video in which he confessed to being technologically challenged.

I'm an illiterate that has to rely on my wife for all the assistance that I can get.

Now Matthew Yglesias weighs in. Does the inability to use a computer in today's society speak to a broader problem? He thinks it might:

Do you have to use a computer to understand how it shapes the country? I think you might. If we had a president who didn't know how to drive a car, that would probably strike us as pretty odd.

Alice Fishburn

Comments

[Mr Potarto]

Am I right in thinking Gordon Brown doesn't drive?

Not that I'd consider that as a reason for disqualifying someone from being Prime Minister.

[Colin Wilson]

Britain once had a Minister for Transport, Barbara Castle, who couldn't drive a car. People thought this was odd but nobody has ever questioned the fact that most Transport Ministers have not been able to drive trains, trucks, busses, or pilot planes, hovercraft, or ships.

Similarly no minister for works or infrastructure has ever been expected to get out and dig the ditches himself.

Tom Stoppard writes brilliant plays but he does not use a computer.

In short, administrators - such as a president - are expected to provide a desirable environment in which the rest of us can operate. They should not be expected to do everything themselves from cooking the White House dinner to servicing the cars and mowing the lawn!