Obama Must Sign Off

Text version of the article: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/27740220/?GT1=43001


This just boggles my mind. I had no idea the president didn't have at least an inter-office e-mail address. Perhaps that makes me naive, but it honestly never occured to me that our country's leader will be unconnected to this degree in 2009. It's not hard to see why President Clinton wasn't sporting a hotmail account, since he was in office during the infancy and childhood of the Internet. But to look back on the past eight years and realize President Bush didn't even have a computer in the Oval Office is really unnerving. In some ways, I guess it makes sense considering the security risks, but there's still a part of me that shouts, "You have got to be kidding -- the leader of the free world isn't allowed to have e-mail!?" That's like telling Woodrow Wilson he couldn't use the telephone during WWI or that JFK wasn't allowed to address the public on television.

There's just something incredibly archaic about our country's leader not being able to use what most Americans consider basic tools for the efficient and successful operation of any office. Obama will effectively be confined to the same forms of communication that have been around for 20 presidents or more. And what's frightening is that the President -- who has the full weight of the CIA, FBI, the Pentagon, and everyone else you can think of -- can't be guaranteed secure electronic communication. What's that say for the rest of us?

America is dependent on electronic communication for everything from trading stocks to ordering lunch. I'm not suggesting Obama and Gen. Patreaus discuss exit strageties from Iraq in text messages, and I certainly don't want to discourage government transparency, but I really don't think it's enough to say this far ino the electronic era that he doesn't need electronic communication simply because everyone around him has it. Every piece of correspondence or information that isn't a hard copy should not have to be relayed through third party on its way to the Commander in Chief.

Also, the President is afforded a smigen of privacy: The White House residence area is off-limits to staff photographers and record keepers, personal letters are permitted, and almost all presidents kept a journal during their terms. I don't think it's asking too much to find a way for Obama to be able to send an electronic note to his wife asking what time she'll be done at the office.

But I also recognize that for every one technical, logistical, and privacy problem the information age poses for the general public, the government confronts 100, and there's certainly no one more deserving of protection from hackers than the president. But seriously, no e-mail? Even the Pope has it!

It's just unbelieveable that the country that brought us Google, Microsoft, YouTube, MySpace, online banking, eBay, and IMDB can't find a way to let the president communicate the format he and everyone else in this country has come to depend on. Is it really any wonder then that the country is in the shape it's in?