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Mac Fathered BlackBerry, Staffer Claims

Dems scoff at Gore moment; aide calls it 'boneheaded joke'

By Harry Kimball,  Newser Staff

Posted Sep 16, 2008 1:09 PM CDT

(Newser) – Barack Obama’s campaign was quick to mock a staffer’s claim today that John McCain helped create the BlackBerry, the Hill reports. An aide suggested that the Republican’s service on the Senate Commerce Committee, which concerns itself with telecommunications, qualified him as a father of the ubiquitous device—recalling Al Gore’s 2000 paternity claim on the internet, as Dems were quick to note.

“The claim that he invented the BlackBerry would have been the most preposterous thing said all week,” an Obama spokesman said, if not for McCain’s assurance that “the fundamentals of our economy are strong” yesterday. McCain laughed off the claim, the Wall Street Journal notes. “He would not claim to be the inventor of anything, much less the BlackBerry,” a campaign rep said. “This was obviously a boneheaded joke by a staffer.”

A BlackBerry in the hands of Barack Obama.
A BlackBerry in the hands of Barack Obama.   (AP Photo)
John McCain on a cellphone.
John McCain on a cellphone.   (AP Photo)
A next-gen BlackBerry flip phone.
A next-gen BlackBerry flip phone.   (AP Photo)
The BlackBerry, and the chips that run it.
The BlackBerry, and the chips that run it.   (AP Photo)
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He did this. The premier innovation in the past 15 years comes right through the Commerce Committee. You’re looking at the miracle that John McCain helped create and that’s what he did. - Doug Holtz-Eakin, McCain aide

If John McCain hadn’t said that ‘the fundamentals of our economy are strong’ on the day of one of our nation’s worst financial crises, the [Blackberry claim] would have been the most pre- posterous thing said all week.
- Bill Burton, Obama spokesman

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