The McCain Campaign Tries to Laugh Off BlackBerry-Gate

It's impossible to say whether the McCain campaign crediting John McCain with having created the BlackBerry will ever have the kind of impact the bogus Gore-invented-the-Internet story had. It seems exceedingly unlikely -- the Gore nonsense is still the subject of jokes, and McCain's media treatment is far more favorable than Gore's.

The Republican campaign, not surprisingly, is doing its level best to dismiss the story, with an aide saying McCain "laughed" when he heard the comment. "He would not claim to be the inventor of anything, much less the BlackBerry. This was obviously a boneheaded joke by a staffer," the aide said.

The truth is, I really doubt Douglas Holtz-Eakin was kidding; he's just not the type to joke like this. It's more likely that he was trying to make a point about McCain's background in commerce, telecommunications, and technology. And if so, it offers us a chance to look a little closer at that record to see how McCain stacks up: