John McCain Invents the Blackberry while the Fundamentals of the economy are still sound

I can't say it any better than Katherine Zeleski wrote yesterday on the Huffington Post:

"McCain's campaign has been all over the place today - from the economy, to his criticism of morning show anchors, to whether he invented the BlackBerry and on Sarah Palin's inability to run a company. And to make matters worse, conservative pundits are turning against McCain."

McCain defended his morning comment about the fundamentals of the economy being strong later in the day by saying that he was referring to American workers as the "fundamentals." In here interview with Sean Hannity, Palin said, "Well, it was an unfair attack on the verbiage that Senator McCain chose to use. The fundamentals that he was having to explain afterwards, he means the work force, he means ingenuity of the American people. And of course, that is strong, that is the foundation of our economy. So that was an unfair attack based on verbiage that John McCain used. Certainly, it is a mess, though. "

On the Blackberry front, the LA Times reports in a story called "Move over, Al Gore: John McCain invented the BlackBerry" -

"John McCain may not be a BlackBerry user. But Tuesday, one of his aides was ready to give the Republican presidential nominee credit for one of the technological marvels of the modern age.In a comment that brought to mind the 2000 presidential campaign flap over whether Al Gore had invented the Internet, McCain's senior policy advisor said the candidate was responsible for the BlackBerry.

Douglas Holtz-Eakin held up his little device to show reporters in Miami as he sought to explain why McCain was qualified to lead the nation out of its economic morass."He did this," Holtz-Eakin said. "The premier innovation in the past 15 years comes right from the commerce committee. So, you're looking at the miracle that John McCain helped create."

McCain is a veteran member of the Senate Committee on Commerce, Science & Transportation, which oversees telecommunication as well as aviation, trade and other economic sectors. He headed the panel from 1997 to 2001 and in 2003-04.

"He both regulated and deregulated that industry," Holtz-Eakin said.McCain, however, has not focused on telecom, has never chaired the telecommunications subcommittee and was one of only two senators to vote against a sweeping telecom deregulation bill in 1996."

Here is a funny video about inventing the Blackberry: