President-Elect Obama is resisting his handlers' determination that he will have to give up his BlackBerry and E-mail. "I'm still clinging to my BlackBerry. . .They're going to have to pry it out of my hands."
I find his position emotionally understandable, but in practical terms, extremely disturbing. I haven't joined the BlackBerry world, but I'd sure miss my e-mail and cellaphone. But just what world does Mr. Obama live in, that he thinks he can keep his private communications?
This is not a university faculty he's joining: Obama is becoming President of the United States. Every utterance, every scribbled note, everything the Man Who Can Begin Nuclear War says will be scrutinized; open to subpoenas; fodder for questions by reporters; to being misconstued and taken out of context by the public, by head-shrinks for foreign intelligence services and everybody but Santa Claus. The president's communications are (with very narrow exceptions) public property, destined to wind up in a library someplace with a catalogue number. For God's sake, the Secret Service spies on the man in his bathroom. The whole idea that a sitting president - or even an ex-president- could (if he's prudent and careful) have access to forms of communication beyond the reach of advisors is, today, ludicrous, and crazy for Obama to want.
Who IS this man? Does Obama not understand what he's gotten himself into? Just why does Obama think the presidents all age so much in their photographs? Does Obama have the mental discipline to be our president? We're all going to find out, aren't we?
3 comments:
I have to say, I can understand how that would be difficult. Probably liberating ultimately, but difficult nonetheless.
I wish he'd stop with all the negative talk on the economy, though. That just breeds more negativity.
You're right about the negative talk. Unfortunately, Mr. Obama's inability to govern his tongue looks like just another indicator of how unready for prime time this man is.
I think we underrate the degree to which becoming president is, more than the obvious honor -- a sentence. The rich, comfortable life after grad school and the great jobs has just ended. The Obamas will never take another step without Secret Service protection. President Obama will always be shadowed by the Colonel with the nuclear codes in his briefcase. His daughters will not date without accompaniment by the security shadowers with the pistols.
He's not gonna keep the BlackBerry. He's not gonna keep e-mail. It's unfortunate, but he has no private life, ever again. None of them do. He can squirm and wiggle how he wants...but he's in it now. Hope, for all our sakes, he can deal with this.
Sometimes I feel like going into hiding for the next 4 years.
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