Citizen Jake

Its true. Or really, its not true at all, but McCain’s top economic advisor says it is:

Asked what work John McCain did as chairman of the Senate Commerce Committee that helped him understand the financial markets, the candidate’s top economic adviser wielded visual evidence: his BlackBerry.

“He did this,” Douglas Holtz-Eakin told reporters this morning, holding up his BlackBerry. “Telecommunications of the United States is a premier innovation in the past 15 years, comes right through the Commerce Committee. So you’re looking at the miracle John McCain helped create and that’s what he did.”

As is being point out this is not true for a number of reasons, not the least of which is that the company that actually did invent the Blackberry is Research in Motion. Which is Canadian. And, as Ezra points out:

Indeed, it remains an odd argument if you take the kind interpretation and assume Holtz-Eakin was talking about the regulatory environment McCain helped craft. The Blackberry was developed in a different country with a different regulatory environment.

Because McCain is a loyal man who sticks up for his staffers he responded to Holtz-Eakin’s claims by…throwing him under the bus:

Senior aide Matt McDonald said that the senator “laughed” when he heard the comment.

“He would not claim to be the inventor or anything, much less the BlackBerry. This was obviously a boneheaded joke by a staffer,”

If you’re looking for a good time search Twitter for #invented and see what people are coming up with for what they invented. I invented happiness and laughter. Now if McCain had invented the iPhone…..