Obama Banned From Technology?
President Elect Obama has already set the stage for what will soon become the most technological Presidency to date. However, he may have to break down a few political barriers before proceeding.
According to an article from MSNBC, Obama is quite the Blackberry enthusiast:
“Mr. Obama’s memorandums and briefing books were seldom printed out and delivered to his house or hotel room, aides said. They were simply sent to his Blackberry for his review.”
In fact, according to records, Obama responds to e-mails and staffers until early in the morning with the convenience of his BB. Throughout the campaign, Obama’s advisers urged him to steer clear of blogs and write-ups on-line, not wanting to jeopardize his focus. However, Obama (true to his savvy form) felt it necessary to stay up to date.
Unfortunately, the rules have now changed. As incoming President, Obama faces legal jurisdiction surrounding all communication to and from his office:
“For starters, there’s the Presidential Records Act, which requires all official correspondence be made available in the public domain. It means those 3 a.m. Blackberry emails he was known for on the trail will probably have to stop, or at least be curtailed in some way.”
In addition, answering a constant flow of e-mails can be extremely distracting as well as time consuming for a President that will already have an overwhelming agenda. Dina Owen, leader of the American Studies program at Georgetown University suggests that Obama’s e-mail may need to go:
“It’s a time burner. It might be easier for him to say, ‘I can’t be on e-mail.’ ”
And yet, it appears that Obama plans to work through these concerns.
“…aides to the president-elect said he hopes to be the first president ever to have a laptop at the ready on the historic Oval Office desk.”
This would mean that our perception of the Presidential desk and his Oval Office would change forever.
Can you picture a laptop on the President’s desk? It feels as though this simple addition will illustrate yet another benchmark in this presidency, finally taking politics into the twenty-first century.
What are you thoughts? Do you have concerns about President Elect Obama using technology in his new administration, or do you feel that his using a laptop and trusty BB is a positive movement into the future ?
*Photo credit: Gizmodo.com
November 18, 2008 at 4:23 pm
I think this is ridiculous. Why should Obama get banned from using his email? He obviously shows great concern to always be hands on with everything even if that mean emailing at 3am. Technology has done a great wonders for him and its an everyday use for everyone so I think he should continue to use it.
November 18, 2008 at 4:37 pm
Mandi-I completely agree. I find it inspiring to have a President who actually understands how to use technology and the powers associated with it. I do, however, understand the implications involved with such an important political office and feel that it is right to assume there will need to be guidelines. That being said, this is an exciting presidency because it will hopefully raise these issues and change legislation to come.
November 20, 2008 at 8:59 pm
I can understand the issue of the Presidential Records Act but let’s think about this for a minute. How many times in our history have all Presidential records been recorded and mysteriously lost or lacked relevance so they were discarded?
More power to Obama for being tech savvy and able to connect on a level playing field with the majority of his supporters.
“Oh my gosh! A laptop on the Oval Office Desk! How dare he!”— I mean really. It’s just a laptop. Pretty soon we are going to hear about some signed agreement between Apple and the White House. That would be exciting.