I don't think he's senile, I think that he is caught in an old politics where politicians routinely just said you know, black is white, white is black and blue is gray and they got away with it for many, many years [Alter tells a couple of anecdotes about a time McCain is more familiar with...before radio and the FDR era] So McCain just can't get away with this kind of thing anymore in the new era, in the YouTube era. And it's a learning curve for him to get up to speed, to recognize he's living with new rules.

McCain either doesn't like blogs or doesn't understand what we're doing:

Now he has introduced legislation that would treat blogs like Internet service providers and hold them responsible for all activity in the comments sections and user profiles. Some highlights of the legislation:

- Commercial websites and personal blogs "would be required to report illegal images or videos posted by their users or pay fines of up to $300,000."

- Internet service providers (ISPs) are already required to issue such reports, but under McCain's legislation, bloggers with comment sections may face "even stiffer penalties" than ISPs.

-- Social networking sites will be forced to take "effective measures" -- such as deleting user profiles -- to remove any website that is "associated" with a sex offender. Sites may include not only Facebook and MySpace, but also Amazon.com, which permits author profiles and personal lists, and blogs like DailyKos, which allows users to sign up for personal diaries.

McCain doesn't know how to read a teleprompter:

iPhone users: Click to watch

OK, that last one was a joke.

Seriously, this man seems like he doesn't either like technology or has a pretty closed attitude towards it (one might say... elitist?). No one's asking him to have designed his own site and run his blog, but he should have a basic understanding of computers. It's 2008, not 1995.

There are lots of people his age who are in touch with tech, so that's no excuse. Sure, my grandmother, at age 87 a few years ago, tried headphones for the first time and was amazed that she could hear the music but others couldn't. It's quaint for her, I guess, but she isn't running for president.

Maybe I spend too much time in front of a computer every day. OK, I spend too much time in front of a computer every day. But I still think that sending email, doing a Google search, knowing a few websites to check out for news or whatever, and understanding that blogs, social networking sites, and YouTube exist and what they do isn't that much to ask.

It isn't about understanding what the kids are doing or being a nerd; it's being a moderately aware citizen of the 21st century.

And for fun, here's this clip again.