Cold Turkey for Obama - Can't dance with the girl that brought him there
Posted by Tony Vilgiate at 11/17/2008 7:00 AM 
Categories: Technology, Barack Obama, Entertainment, Political Culture
Categories: Technology, Barack Obama, Entertainment, Political Culture
The Associated Press (AP) ran a story today about how Barack Obama is going to have to give up his BlackBerry device as President. Turns out that all of the president's email communications can potentially be subpoenaed by Congress and our courts, and may later be subject to various public records laws. So the same technology that helped him connect with so many younger voters: BlackBerry, Twitter, Facebook etal.. will now have to be shelved during his term. There were many stories written about how Barack Obama connected to the younger demographic, and frankly how this percived technological "hippness" really scored points amongst first time and non-issues voters.
So first Barack Obama had to quite smoking to run for the presidency, and now he will have to give up the BlackBerry. I have watched many of my friends go through BlackBerry (CrackBerry) withdrawls, it was painful and frankly I would not wish that on anyone.
Seriously, Bill Clinton and GW Bush both called a halt to all email while holding office and it is quite a normal practice for the President of the United States to more carefully regulate communications, in both personal and public areas of his life. The hard part will be maintaining that "personal" connection that many of Obama's tech-savy constituents have credited as part of his allure and "transparancy".
So first Barack Obama had to quite smoking to run for the presidency, and now he will have to give up the BlackBerry. I have watched many of my friends go through BlackBerry (CrackBerry) withdrawls, it was painful and frankly I would not wish that on anyone.
"Definitely he's going to feel an electronic detoxing," said Reed Dickens, former assistant press secretary to President George W. Bush. Dickens jokes that he personally is so addicted to his BlackBerry that he checks his device before opening his right eye.
Benjamin Nugent, author of the book "American Nerd," said the president-elect is such a techie and has nerd qualities. So cutting off the BlackBerry could be painful: "It'll be interesting if we could see the torment on his face. For me it would be hell."
So, really who cares how he deals with the economy! Can he quite his BlackBerry addiction or will he just "bum" a friends like he did with the smokes on the campaign trail? Benjamin Nugent, author of the book "American Nerd," said the president-elect is such a techie and has nerd qualities. So cutting off the BlackBerry could be painful: "It'll be interesting if we could see the torment on his face. For me it would be hell."
Seriously, Bill Clinton and GW Bush both called a halt to all email while holding office and it is quite a normal practice for the President of the United States to more carefully regulate communications, in both personal and public areas of his life. The hard part will be maintaining that "personal" connection that many of Obama's tech-savy constituents have credited as part of his allure and "transparancy".
Comments