Adviser calls BlackBerry 'miracle' McCain 'helped create'

From Chris Welch and Rebecca SinderbrandCNN

(CNN) -- Sen. John McCain's senior home policy adviser pointed out Tuesday that the BlackBerry cellular electronic mail machine was a "miracle that John McCain helped create."

The adviser, Douglas Holtz-Eakin, discussing the nation's financial woes with reporters, talked about that McCain -- who has struggled to emphasize his financial credentials -- did have experience dealing with the economy, pointing to his time on the Senate Commerce Committee.

Pressed to supply an instance of what McCain had completed on that committee, Holtz-Eakin stated the senator didn't have jurisdiction over monetary markets, then he held up his Blackberry, telling journalists: "He did this."

"Telecommunications of the united states, the greatest innovation during the past 15 years, comes during the Commerce Committee. so that you're searching on the miracle that John McCain helped create," Holtz-Eakin mentioned. "and that's the reason what he did. He both regulated and deregulated the trade."

all over the 2000 presidential campaign, vp Al Gore drew controversy when he talked about that all through his time in Congress, he "took the initiative in developing the information superhighway" -- in keeping with his work promoting funding and early research in that area.

The Obama campaign spoke back to the McCain adviser's feedback Tuesday presently after they were suggested.

"If John McCain hadn't pointed out that 'the fundamentals of our economy are potent' on the day of one of our nation's worst financial crises, the declare that he invented the BlackBerry would have been essentially the most preposterous component spoke of all week," referred to Obama crusade spokesman bill Burton.

meanwhile, McCain senior aide Matt McDonald said that the senator "laughed" when he heard the comment.

"He would now not claim to be the inventor of anything, lots much less the BlackBerry. This became obviously a boneheaded comic story via a staffer," McDonald mentioned.

The Obama campaign debuted an ad last week that attacked McCain's potential with technology, together with computer systems.

The ad refers to the variety of years McCain has been in Washington to color him as out of touch: "1982. John McCain goes to Washington," the announcer says. "issues have changed within the final 26 years. but McCain hasn't.

"He admits he nonetheless does not know the way to use a pc, can't send an e mail. still doesn't understand the financial system. And favors $200 billion in new tax cuts for companies but almost nothing for the middle category.

"After one president who became out of contact ... we simply can't find the money for extra of the identical."

asked whether he prefers a Mac or pc in a Yahoo news/Politico interview prior this yr, McCain admitted: "Neither. i'm an illiterate that has to depend on my spouse for all the counsel that i can get." Watch more on McCain and computers »

whereas wife Cindy McCain has been spotted working her BlackBerry on the crusade path, the senator -- in one example that CNN cameras caught -- had to be handed the device by means of a staffer.

Obama, on the other hand, often is viewed reading e-mails on his BlackBerry.

"he is a BlackBerry fiend, has a desktop on the highway and sometimes uses it to discuss with his daughters ... and surfs the net when he's in want of important information such as activities ratings," Linda Douglass, an Obama campaign senior aide and spokeswoman,stated in June.

CNN's Ed Hornick and Jeanne Moos contributed to this document.

All About John McCain • BlackBerry mobile gadgets