Alter: Why Obama Should Keep His BlackBerry | Newsweek Voices - Jonathan Alter

Keep the BlackBerry

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Yes, Obama needs Rahm Emanuel and others to guard his time and keep people from eating up his day in meetings and phone calls. But e-mail is efficient for any executive. It lets him access the outside world on his own terms. And you can bet that the people in the president's e-mail address book would contact him only sparingly. They know his time is valuable.

The main argument for making presidents give up their e-mail accounts is that e-mail can be hacked. What if a foreign government got hold of it?

The answer to that is: so what? As long as Obama doesn't respond much to the e-mail beyond "Go Sox!" or "thanks"—which is about the extent of what he wrote during the campaign when he responded at all—the harm would be minimal. At worst, spies or other hackers would learn that some guy from Chicago they never heard of thought Obama should do this or that.

More likely, the U.S. government can figure out a way to secure Obama's BlackBerry communication the way they secure his telephone calls. They have already agreed to do so for his desktop computer in the Oval Office. (He will be the first president to have one).
Some objections have been raised related to the Presidential Records Act, which puts all White House correspondence in the official record. The answer to that is to simply release the e-mail correspondence on the same schedule as applies to presidential snail mail.

The BlackBerry decision is symbolic of so many calls Obama will have to make. Some official will always be telling him why something cannot be done for this reason or that. His response should be to press them hard on why things cannot be done differently.

Mr. President-Elect, hanging onto your BlackBerry would free you a bit from the gilded prison of the White House. It would help you keep it real amid the stifling air of unreality that will soon envelop you.

And if you think giving up smoking is hard, wait until you go cold turkey on the BlackBerry. You'll be bumming handhelds from your aides all day long. Might as well keep your own.

I agree with Mr. Alter that Obama should keep his blackberry, but for a different reason:

I think that the most piercing insight that Barack Obama brought to the presidential campaign, a message that carried him through both the primaries and general election, was his dedication to the idea of "change." I can't help but believe that Obama embraced not only the idea that we as a nation must change, but that we all must embrace the idea of change itself.

If you think about all of the biggest problems that face our nation today, you will find that at their root is a resistance to change. Why is our nation facing an impending energy crisis? Because for the past 25 years, we've allowed the interests of Big Energy to dictate our policy, and they have remained obstinately wed to 20th century energy sources. Instead of spending their time and money on developing the future of energy science, they've used it to influence government not to invest in fostering the alternative technologies that will eventually make fossil fuels obsolete. Why is our car industry failing before our eyes? Because they have fought emissions standards instead of challenging themselves to get ahead of them, and engineer cars that will sell in the 21st century. Why is our economy failing? Because the rest of our nations commerce has followed suit, and focused more on creating a virtual economy in which we play with the money created from existing industries instead of maintaining our dedication to innovating real, tangible industries that will create real, lasting wealth for our nation.

If our country can take one lesson from the last 30 years, it's that there's no such thing as standing still in history -- you're either moving forward or falling behind. No matter what the issue is, the answer must always be forward-thinking. It might often seem easier to stick with what works, but it will always be worth it spend or endure a little more now to prepare for the future. That's where Obama's blackberry fits in: it might seem easier now to make him ditch it, but the blackberry, or rather, the technology it represents, isn't going anywhere. Taking his blackberry away might solve the problem for the present, but it does so only by resisting change. If Obama's campaign has taught us anything, it's that every American must welcome back the transformative spirit of change.

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Posted By: open4energy @ 07/01/2009 11:28:48 PM

Talking about the BlackBerry and energy saving

At least we do not need to be concerned about the energy being used by President Obama.

It consumes a mere 12,5 cents per year,

But here is the kicker, a typical user will waste $1,65, using their charger as a miniature heater while waiting for its device to return for the next charge.

Individually we may not see this as a problem, but it is a big issue in totality. We are pouring billions of $'s into the air on chargers playing heater ...

Please join us to to understand this issue, and put an end to this silly waste: http://open4energy.com/forum/hc/power/blackberry_charging
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Posted By: AshamedofYou @ 11/22/2008 10:42:16 AM

Obama should keep the Blackberry, how else is he going to successfully sling crack.
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Posted By: Special J @ 11/21/2008 5:29:53 PM

I agree with Mr. Alter that Obama should keep his blackberry, but for a different reason:

I think that the most piercing insight that Barack Obama brought to the presidential campaign, a message that carried him through both the primaries and general election, was his dedication to the idea of "change." I can't help but believe that Obama embraced not only the idea that we as a nation must change, but that we all must embrace the idea of change itself.

If you think about all of the biggest problems that face our nation today, you will find that at their root is a resistance to change. Why is our nation facing an impending energy crisis? Because for the past 25 years, we've allowed the interests of Big Energy to dictate our policy, and they have remained obstinately wed to 20th century energy sources. Instead of spending their time and money on developing the future of energy science, they've used it to influence government not to invest in fostering the alternative technologies that will eventually make fossil fuels obsolete. Why is our car industry failing before our eyes? Because they have fought emissions standards instead of challenging themselves to get ahead of them, and engineer cars that will sell in the 21st century. Why is our economy failing? Because the rest of our nations commerce has followed suit, and focused more on creating a virtual economy in which we play with the money created from existing industries instead of maintaining our dedication to innovating real, tangible industries that will create real, lasting wealth for our nation.

If our country can take one lesson from the last 30 years, it's that there's no such thing as standing still in history -- you're either moving forward or falling behind. No matter what the issue is, the answer must always be forward-thinking. It might often seem easier to stick with what works, but it will always be worth it spend or endure a little more now to prepare for the future. That's where Obama's blackberry fits in: it might seem easier now to make him ditch it, but the blackberry, or rather, the technology it represents, isn't going anywhere. Taking his blackberry away might solve the problem for the present, but it does so only by resisting change. If Obama's campaign has taught us anything, it's that every American must welcome back the transformative spirit of change.