"He can't use a keyboard"

Somebody please, tell me this is just a very bad dream or an incredibly over-the-top farce. This cannot be a real, "your-future-is-on-the-line" Presidential race, can it?

First, the Obama campaign puts out an ad that points out -- correctly, I'd say -- that any Presidential candidate who can't be bothered to learn how to use a computer or send his own email is...how to put this politely?...a complete dumbass illiterate loser. In case you're wondering, this was in reference to the admited fact from the McCain camp that John McCain does not know thing one about using a computer.

Then, once this hits, we find a report (via a link on Drudge, naturally) that poor old Mr. "Lived in a Box for Five and a Half Years" can't use a computer because...(wait for it, you've never heard this excuse before)...he was a POW. From a 2000 Boston Globe article:

...McCain's severe war injuries prevent him from combing his hair, typing on a keyboard, or tying his shoes...

I'm sorry, call me insensitive, but I'm not buying that. Not even a little bit.

And the reason why is the guy pictured above, a man who suffers far more than John McCain from the nerve deadening effects of Lou Gehrig's disease: world-famous physicist Stephen Hawking.

Somehow, even though he has no control at all over his arms, his hands, or his entire body from the neck down, Hawking has figured out not only how to use a computer, but how to write emails, write entire books and, in short, be a fully functioning citizen of the 21st Century.

I don't know about you, but I'm looking for a President who doesn't use his disabilities as an excuse; I'm looking for one who has found a way to overcome his obstacles and move ahead.

Say, a candidate who started off dirt-poor, lived in a one-parent home where Food Stamps were needed to make meals. Somehow made it into an Ivy League school and then the top Law School in the country, where he became the first person of his race to be President of the Law Review.

And yes, somewhere along the line, he also learned how to use a computer.

That's the guy I want calling the shots next year. Not the one whining because it's too hard.