There has been a substantial amount of interest placed on whether President-elect Barack Obama will carry his Blackberry with him when he’s president. Conventional wisdom suggests that he won’t. First, there was this piece in The New York Times by Jeff Zeleny which raised myriad reasons why the president of the united states should be sans Blackberry, the most notable of which is that it allows people to bypass the bureaucracy and for Mr. Obama to do so as well. That might sound appealing, but the practical ramifications could be problematic.
Today, Michael Agger of Slate urges Mr. Obama to keep his Blackberry. He opines, “You don’t need to be a computer lover to see that smooth information flow might be a help in tackling the complexity of the financial crisis, Iraq, Afghanistan, education, and health care. Tech policy starts at the top. Obama should set a precedent by having the ‘Berry at his side: Here is a government that is accessible, capable, and efficient.”
In Mr. Zeleny’s piece he noted, “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. If a document was too long, he would read and respond from his laptop computer, often putting his editing changes in red type.”
Jonathan Alter of Newsweek has also urged Mr. Obama to stay plugged in. Alter’s argument is quite pragmatic. “And the only way he can be successful in the presidency is if he can stay connected to the world beyond the “splendid isolation” of the presidency. To succeed, he must be constantly exposed to a wide variety of opinions—not just from advisers, experts, pundits and polls, but from his friends.”
The main argument for presidents giving up their e-mail is that it can he hacked. Writing for Computerworld, Bill Brenner notes that there are several ways for the national security apparatus to protect from this. Alter observes they have already agreed to do so on his oval office computer.
The Presidential Records Act requires that all White House correspondence become part of the public record. Some are concerned that Mr. Obama’s e-mails would be included. So what? When Mr. Obama’s records are unsealed long after he leaves office, the public, historians and the press will have access to them. In turn, it will help everyone understand how technology helped the first president in history to use a laptop and a Blackberry do his job. Isn’t that a good thing?