If you can read this, you're a direct beneficiary of the Internets, which were invented in gradual steps by prominent politicians during election years.

Here is a brief history of the medium, (updated yesterday!)…

1977-1993: Al Gore, as a member of Congress and later the Senate, invents the internet, as described in an interview with Wolf Blitzer…

"During my service in the United States Congress, I took the initiative in creating the Internet."

June 28, 2006: The mystery of the internet's inner workings is revealed by Alaska Senator Ted Stevens, who at the time was the Senator with the largest regulatory power over the medium…

"The Internet is not something that you just dump something on. It's not a big truck. It's a series of tubes. And if you don't understand, those tubes can be filled and if they are filled, when you put your message in, it gets in line and it's going to be delayed by anyone that puts into that tube enormous amounts of material, enormous amounts of material."

As we reported yesterday, John McCain's policy advisor Douglas Holtz-Eakin reveals that the BlackBerry, a handheld device used to access the internet, was invented by none other than his boss, John McCain…

"He did this," said Holtz-Eakin, raising a BlackBerry, that ubiquitous hand-held wireless e-mailer. "Telecommunications in the United States, the premiere innovation in the past 15 years, comes right through the Commerce Committee. So you're looking at the miracle that John McCain helped create."

Of these three pioneers, the most impressive is probably McCain, since he helped pioneer a field he admits knowing nothing about.

To draw an equivalent, try to imagine Dennis Kucinich developing tactical long-range missiles. Or Mitt Romney producing hip hop records.

Or John McCain running the economy.