December 2, 2008 8:44:41 PM CST
(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.”
Sources The Hill, Wall Street Journal
Nov 19, 08 1:55 PM CST Missouri, the last state up for grabs, looks to have gone Republican by less than a 1% margin, leaving John McCain with 173 electoral votes to Barack Obama’s 365, the Kansas City Star reports. There are still 3,000 uncounted provisional ballots, but McCain’s margin is large enough to declare him the winner of the state’s 11 electoral votes. More »
Nov 17, 08 4:45 PM CST Sarah Palin made such a splash in American politics this year that she deserves consideration for Time magazine Person of the Year, Kathryn Jean Lopez writes for the National Review. “They’ve probably long picked The One,” Lopez writes, referring to Barack Obama. But “like Obama, all you had to do was look at her to see that she offered something different on a national ticket.” More »
Nov 17, 08 2:41 PM CST Barack Obama and John McCain met today in Chicago, and reaffirmed their call for bipartisanship and cooperation, the Tribune reports. The 90-minute meeting, at Obama’s transition headquarters, was described by the president-elect as a “conversation about how we can do some work together to fix up the country.” McCain, asked if he would help see that goal through, was clear. “Obviously.” More »
Nov 14, 08 5:08 PM CST Barack Obama has won a single Nebraska electoral vote in post-election counting, the first time the state has split the vote since a 1991 law allowed the practice, the AP reports. No Democrat has gotten a vote in the state since Lyndon Johnson in 1964. More »
Nov 14, 08 3:18 PM CST Barack Obama’s campaign is redistributing the wealth to the staff, the New York Daily News reports. The loaded campaign will give its troops a bonus equivalent to a month’s pay and allow employees to keep campaign-issued phones and computers, provided they pay the taxes. “It's a very nice gesture for people who slaved away and sacrificed for the past year,” one said. More »
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
Barack Obama • Election 2008 • John McCain • Al Gore • BlackBerry • Senate Commerce Committee
