WIll President Obama have to give up using his Blackberry once he takes office?

Essentially, the President will not be a private person for four to eights years, while in office. He has sold his soul (above the belt, according to Bill Clinton) to the people of the United States. On exiting, you get your Blackberry back to help assist you in rounding up important documents to put into your Presidential Library.

Why would anyone want this job? We can all be thankful and say an extra prayer at night that there are still a few people out there crazy enough to want to be President. The candidates are willing to get down on their knees and beg the people of the US for two years before they even get the job. They lose most of their personal identity -- which has now become public record -- and they become public fodder for the media and political cartoons. Their noses and ears are distorted and we remind them of every tiny mistake they make in public. They will be lucky not to leave office in disgrace or in a coffin. And we blast them with "Hail to the Chief" every time we see them, just to remind them that we're STILL WATCHINING, and don't pull any smart stuff...

Ha ha, so true. Still when you think of it from the other perspective Obama has already sold his soul (hes a lawyer isnt he?) so begging for this exhaulted position didnt really cost him that much.

George W. Bush had to give up his private email address, also.

I've never thought of the Presidency as the ultimate legal-beagle position, but you have a point...

right of access or not, he can still use the blackberry...//// oh wait...is it this particular blackberry? I mean Obama can have a blackberry as a president......so which is it?

I think what this is about is the fact that they cant regulate what obama uses his blackberry for, so they wont let him have it in the likley event that he lies to america and uses his own email off his blackberry.

No, it is because blackberries and such can be hacked. It's a national security issue.

Ah. In that case is there a special phone that they want him to use?

Well, not to sound stupid or anything but there are security measures that can be taken to insure non hackers. Cause if the issue is hacking well the the President should not use a computer since it may be hacked.
There is phenomenal encryption out there. Ad I would assume our government is smart enough to know not to put classified documents in emails, or on blackberry's etc etc.

I saw a blackberry storm commerical the other day and it mentioned something about phenomenal new security. I wonder what kind of blackberry hes using.

the chinese "allegedly" have been hacking into the USA govt puters. no puter is hacker safe.

The question was intended to cover whether Barack Obama continues to use any Blackberry (not necessarily the one he has now) - partially or fully - once he is President.

If you read the articles up in the top right corner, you won't have to speculate.

I hear that not only does Barack need to give up his Blackberry, he needs to remove all references of himself from the internet: http://is.gd/7RCJ

@zenboy- i think you missed the upper right hand corner of the page you sent: "…a social-media satire site..." Like the Onion or Stephen Colbert's victory of the Nov. 4 election in Marvel Comics, or Gracie Allen's campaign in 1938, that story is a satire or parody. Obama is not removing all references to himself from the Internet. Nice try, tho...

I noticed the same thing! I thought that sounded off. After all george bush has a myspace of his own.

Obama is in "negotiations" to keep his blackberry: http://gawker.com/5099072/obama-clinging-to-forbidden-blackberry

Jan 8, 11:03 AM EST

Obama, security aides, still debating Blackberry
http://news.wired.com/dynamic/stories/O/OBAMA_BLACKBERRY?SITE=WIRE&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT&CTIME=2009-01-08-07-25-27

How would the question be settled if Obama ended up using a different device? Does the settlement depend specifically on a "blackberry", or is that just the type of device being discussed? Perhaps this should be clarified, as I have seen some discussions of some military devices that are similar to a blackberry (but not the same) being used by Obama instead of his current device as they are more secure.

He reckons he is going to get to keep it: http://politicalticker.blogs.cnn.com/2009/01/16/obama-thinks-he-can-keep-his-blackberry/

Come on Obama, rules are rules. Unless you want to pull a richard nixon on us "If the presidet does it, its not illegal". This is certainly an interesting way to enter his presidency. Already he is considering himself above the law. He looked pretty smug at the inaguration.

He's going with a Sectera Edge by General Dynamics: http://www.cnn.com/2009/POLITICS/01/22/obama.blackberry/index.html

@dragonfang:
It's so refreshing to here a conservative say ""rules are rules". ;)

How will this settle if he has to get a new Blackberry?

Because he will be giving up "his Blackberry" for a better one.

I say let him keep it. The more he texts his buddies and updates his MySpace page, the less he tries to grow government.

good point

Yeah, we wouldn't want him 'shrinking' the government the way Dubya did with the multi-billion-dollar, 200,000-plus-employee, scandal-ridden Department of Homeland Security. ;)

The fact of the matter is that conservatives, once they're in office, find themselves under constant pressure from their constituents to use their positions to improve their constituent's lives. This puts those conservative politicians in the obviously awkward position of overseeing government agencies whose missions--and, in fact, very existence--they believe to be illegitimate. As such, contemporary conservatism is a walking contradiction: unable to shrink government but unwilling to improve it, conservatives attempt to split the difference, expanding government for political gain, but almost always in a manner that validates their disregard for the very thing they're expanding. The result: not just bigger government, but more incompetent government.

Another on the growing list of reasons Democrats run the White House and both pieces of Congress.

Oh, wait: by 'less government', do you simply mean that certain regulated industries should be even more free to do what they wish? You know, like banking? ;)

I will admit, Bush did grow government and I was not a fan of that fact. As for banking take a look at the Clinton era... It was his solution to the crash of the dot com era.

Sqlman
I agree with you about Bush growing the government - I am not happy about that.
Any wagers on who grows bigger government - Obama vs Bush.

Since when are conservatives the only group to provide pork to their constituents? Democrats are not guilty of this as well?
I hope you are wearing thick boots today, because I wouldn't want to see you step in any of it.

Obama says he will eliminate the pork barrel spending - I will believe it when I see it.
From a CNN story last summer:

http://www.cnn.com/2007/POLITICS/06/18/earmarks/index.html
Highlights:
• Only 52 of 435 House members provided information on earmark requests
• 68 declined to provide requests; 315 didn't return calls or provide requests
• Democrats promised scrutiny of earmarks when they regained Congress
• Earmarks -- derided as "pork" -- often fund lawmakers' pet projects

Look, bush is out of the picture. Bush had his time now we need to move on. We cant just compare him to bush to try and make him look better. I know that obamas whole strategy consists of blaming every problem on bush but we need to start taking the spotlight off bush and get it on obama. The point is Obama considers himself above the law because he refuses to listen to government regulations, regulations that former presidents havent dared questioned (clinton used to have a nokia phone i think before he got rid of it in compliance to the rules). I am just waiting for a scandal, ten times bigger than watergate, and a quote that will be used for generations. Something along the lines of "If the president does it its not illegal.". Hes entering his presidency with the same attitude nixon had.

What regulation prevents him from having a blackberry? I don't believe there is one. Just like there is no regulation that he not go for late night walks by himself.

I can see the Match.com account now,
"Im barack obama and i enjoy blackberrys, inagurations, and late night walks"
But seriously look at this guys arrogance! Its off the charts! I mean, the government tells him he cant have his blackberry, a simple request, and what does he do? He hires a team of lawyers to "negotiate" with the white house and breaks a regulation. Somewhere, richard nixon is rolling in his grave.

I think these "regulations" and "team of lawyers" are a figment of your imagination.
I also think that as far matters of the presidency go, this isn't one you should be losing much sleep over.

You ever heard of the phrase "the beginning of the end"?
"I am still clinging to my BlackBerry," Obama said, adding, "They are going to pry it out of my hands."
If thats not an confession for considering himself above the law i dont know what is.
(ok so the lawyer part was wrong, my bad i misread the article. however it is a regulation. "For national security purposes, a president is limited in his electronic correspondences for fear of hacking. " a regulation created by the secret service right before clinton

And he has negotiated with them a situation where he can keep it. If anybody should have the right to negotiate with the Secret Service I would think it is the President. It is not like he is blatantly ignoring their concerns. They have taken measures to ensure the threat no longer exists.

The measures they took to ensure the threat no longer exists was to ban the president from having the cell phone! And it wasnt just the secret service, it was a large number of government lawyers.

Technology is changing all the time. Hand held devices in particular are advancing at an amazing rate. What was relevant many years ago may not be relevant today. Obama has encouraged the SS to use technology to find a solution and they have. Kudos to him. I am sure the SS and all involved have learned on how to best utilize technology for today's setting.

If you are so concerned about government communications I think you should be wondering more about the Whitehouse email debacle which has been dragging through the courts.

The White House e-mail debacle will be won now that the Nazis, ahem, the Republicans who Resemble Nazis, are out of office. The problem is that Cheney through his back out trying to reach around the back of his Mac to pull out the hard drive and now he just doesn't know what to do. In any case, the e-mails we do get will be scrubbed clean.

Sweet Jesus, I wish I'd entered this fray earlier.

You people (read, not my people) are hysterical. Should I ever run for office here I fully intend that be my platforms mantra. YOU PEOPLE. It so makes us all sound like 'family' dont it?

Incidentally, drag on...your commentary is the apex of anal. Suddenly I find myself irresistibly attracted to you.....but I digress.

I also have a song...Poetry in Motion running thru my head but Motion has now been replaced by the word Paradox.....thanks SO much to whoever wrote something about something being contradictory.....

drag on....nobody really, but you and me, are focusing on Bush right now. And whatever your reasons, I don't really care. My reasons are that he went SO far beyond breaking the 'blackberry rules' he should be executed.

And I fully expect that now that we've outed the anonymous creep, one Arlen Specter, R-PA, we will apply every imaginable force to _ up his life till he relents and lets us put good ole Eric in as AG so we can fry that Texan tard.

The whole world is crying for justice. That's really all we can give them.

sqlman - scandal-ridden dept of homeland security? what scandals was they invovled in?

Comon, thats just low. Dragging dick cheney into this? They had there time now lets move on. Just throwing there name out there whenever obama does something wrong or breaks a rule does not make whatever he did ok. Now, If you can name one thing bush did that was illegal i would be glad to hear it( and the iraq war, guantonomo bay, and katrina, dont count. Bush didnt start the iraq war congress did-using information provided by the brits-, guantonomo bay was full of people who wouldnt think twice about murdering innocents, and katrina was budgeted by congress and managed by fema). Until then lets bring the spotlight back on obama and his arrogance against the law. If the secret service requests that he give up his cellphone he should just do it. Theres no reason he should openly try and work against the government with quotes like "They are going to (have to) pry it out of my hands." "

National Security Agency has approved a $3,350 smartphone

Yep. What a fiscally responsible leader. No, hes not wasting government money.

@dieseldog:

o answer your question:

1) Congress estimates that the DHS has wasted roughly $15 billion in failed contracts (as of September 2008).

2) In 2003, the department came under fire after the media revealed that Laura Callahan, Deputy Chief Information Officer at DHS with responsibilities for sensitive national security databases, had obtained her advanced computer science degrees through a diploma mill in a small town in Wyoming.

3) The DHS was blamed for up to $2 billion of waste and fraud after audits by the Government Accountability Office revealed widespread misuse of government credit cards by DHS employees, with purchases including beer brewing kits, $70,000 of plastic dog booties that were later deemed unusable, boats purchased at double the retail price (many of which later could not be found), and iPods ostensibly for use in "data storage".

4) IN 2007, the DHS scrapped an anti-terrorism data mining tool called ADVISE (Analysis, Dissemination, Visualization, Insight and Semantic Enhancement) after the agency's internal Inspector General found that pilot testing of the system had been performed using data on real people without required privacy safeguards in place. The system, in development at Lawrence Livermore and Pacific Northwest national laboratories since 2003, has cost the agency $42 million to date. Controversy over the program is not new; in March 2007, the Government Accountability Office stated that "the ADVISE tool could misidentify or erroneously associate an individual with undesirable activity such as fraud, crime or terrorism." Homeland Security's Inspector General later said that ADVISE was poorly planned, time-consuming for analysts to use, and lacked adequate justifications.

5) In July 2006, the Office of Personnel Management conducted a survey of federal employees in all 36 federal agencies on job satisfaction and how they felt their respective agency was headed. DHS was last or near to last in every category including:

--33rd on the talent management index
--35th on the leadership and knowledge management index
--36th on the job satisfaction index
--36th on the results-oriented performance culture index

The low scores were attributed to major concerns about basic supervision, management and leadership within the agency. Examples from the survey reveal most concerns are about promotion and pay increase based on merit, dealing with poor performance, rewarding creativity and innovation, leadership generating high levels of motivation in the workforce, recognition for doing a good job, lack of satisfaction with various component policies and procedures and lack of information about what is going on with the organization.

6) According to a 2007 GAO report, DHS:

--Has failed to Implement a strategy to detect and interdict illegal flows of cargo, drugs, and other items into the U.S.
--Has failed to develop and implement an international passenger pre-screening process to compare passenger information to terrorist watch lists before aircraft departure.
--Has failed to develop and implement technologies to screen air cargo.
--Has failed to conduct compliance inspections for surface transportation systems.
--Has failed to develop a program to screen incoming maritime cargo for radiation.
--Has failed to ensure the capacity and readiness of disaster response teams.
--Has failed to improve and enhance information sharing among public agencies and with the private sector involving attacks, threats, and vulnerabilities.
--Has failed to accurately assess emerging chemical, biological, radiological, and nuclear threats.
--Has failed to develop and implement processes to recruit and hire employees who possess needed skills.

If 'scandal-ridden' is too strong a term, how about 'tremendously weak, undisciplined, inefficient, wasteful, and unnecessary'? ;)

FWIW, I've no problem with Obama spending $3,350 on the General Dynamics phone; that's a mere fraction of a percent what it cost the US taxpayer to set up an alternate White House for Bush in Crawford, Texas...an expense I seriously doubt Obama will incur.

sqlman - If 'scandal-ridden' is too strong a term, how about 'tremendously weak, undisciplined, inefficient, wasteful, and unnecessary'? ;) agreed scandal-ridden to strong. the things you have listed proablly applies to every dept of the US govt. :O)

You know, the General Dynamics phone is NOT a BlackBerry.

The actual result was not on this poll, so how did it get resolved as this?

I was thinking the same thing.

Battle over; Obama gets his BlackBerry
http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/nationworld/2008661443_blackberry23.html

On Monday, a government agency that the Obama administration -- but that is probably the National Security Agency -- added to a standard blackberry a super-encryption package.... and Obama WILL be able to use it ... still for routine and personal messages.
http://marcambinder.theatlantic.com/archives/2009/01/obama_will_get_his_blackberry.php

Spending 3,350 dollars of someone elses money so he wouldnt have to abide to the law.. this will be an interesting 6 months. Of course i have my doubts he'll even make it that long.

As I said before, the three grand plus spent on Obama's phone to keep him securely in touch with his duties while he meanders around is a mere drop in the bucket compared to the tens of millions it cost the taxpayer to run the White House from Bush's dusty, brushy Texas compound, so I don't have a problem. Besides, at $3350, Obama's phone will set each person in the United States back a cool one-thousandth of a cent, whereas the most conservative estimate of Dubya's bailout for his Wall Street buddies is about $2290, or roughly 209 million times as much...

;)

Oh please, you know how much it will cost each american citizen for obamas new bailout? 3 291.37229 per person or roughly infinitly times more than bush spent on cell phones of other peoples money throughout his entire presidency.

He Chose to be in the technological dark ages. Is this what you consider a quality of a president?
These devices are tools which improve efficiency. Something that is hard to put a price on for somebody this powerful.
You are not finding your arguments based on logic dragonfang but rather forming them based on a personal dislike of your president.

Honestly, drag on....this is the best you can do? Obama wanted a blackberry and he got one?! OMG!

You're really a whiny, little Nancy aren't you?

Your missing the point! During a time of great budget cuts and penny pinching, he completly disregards that and spends others peoples money like water. I mean in california, cities are going bankrupt because of lack of funding. And hes wasting our tax dollars by the barrel full! Thats arrogant dont you admit?

If Bush agreed to throwing him a 50 Million dollar inauguration I think he is justified to have a phone even if it costs 10 times more than mine because of the security he requires.

i can't believe nobody has made a question yet..when will obama's blackberry be hacked into? people hack the pentagon i'm sure they'll try to hack into obama's BB.

What was bush supposed to do? "No obama, you cant throw that inaguration. I wont allow it." There would have been massive protests and even massiver shoe throwings! I mean, he doesnt want to leave the office as a bad sport to the transition. And from now on lets try and remember the fact that bush no longer matters. Bush is out and obamas in.
Anyway back to the matter at hand, Companys are going bankrupt, people are losing there jobs, corperations are shutting down, and obamas spending away thousands of our tax dollars so he can text his friends and watch youtube when hes supposed to be working.

How much do you figure Bush's helicopter ride home cost?
We likely agree this was money well spent.

WASHINGTON (AFP) - President Barack Obama's aides, who ran the most tech-savvy US election campaign in history, were forced into a red-faced admission Monday -- the White House email system has crashed.

http://tech.yahoo.com/news/afp/20090126/tc_afp/uspoliticsobamaemailwhouseinternet_20090126224725

Bushes helicopter ride home was done after he was president. That came out of his pocket. At least im guessing anyway, i dont really know for sure. And even if it was government money for the ride home, transportation is LOT more important than texting his friends and watching youtube while hes supposed to be working.

Actually, dragon, I kind of agree that transportation of George W. Bush AWAY from Washington was very, very important, even if it was government money (which it was). But I'm proud to say that my tax dollars contributed toward that.

So you figure Bush paid for a flight on a helicopter called "Marine One" but you have concluded that Obama did not pay for his own cell-phone?
Keep guessing. The truth might hurt.

Well, mork, bush is no longer a government official. By most measures hes now a private citizen. But even so, im willing to bet that that helicopter ride is one of his last government expenses. Obama didnt pay to have his cell phones security upgraded. The government did. We paid our money, that could have gone to someone who actually needed it to a man, so he could text his friends, play brick breaker and watch videos while he is on the clock and being paid with money to do the job which he would be avoiding by playing with his cell phone. He friviously spends thousands of government dollars while many americans cant even afford to live in a house! That is arragant, irrisponsible, and a clear waste of money. Not to mention the fact that the whole point of spending all this money was so that he could break the law with our tax dollars! I predict one of the largest scandals in government history will be uncovered within the year!

This is too retarded to even begin to address. Losing your touch drag on.

To be sure, I have bigger problems with the Zionist/Neo cons & libs & other criminal elements Obama picked as cabinet members than his stupid Blackberry.

Rahm Emmanuel is decidedly who I distrust the most.

doesn't bush get a pension and a secret service detail for life ?
if so, then he has become a government expense

His pension is part of a government retirment plan that he bought into and that most politicians get. The secret service detail is a pretty vital expense. But i think c2r is right, this incident has played itself out.

All these politicians use our tax dollars...... Now what

No kidding! Wasting money by the barrel full, irrisponsibly, while people are going bankrupt and cant afford a roof over there heads!

Like you give a rat's ass, drag on. Puh-lease....your like every other Rethug...out for yourself.

Your right! I should just ignore the fact that hes wasting government dollars! I mean im just looking out for myself and where my tax dollars go! How stupid of me!

Not to fear....he can always drastically reduce military spending and work it out. Meanwhile you can always eek out a living by, oh, I don't know....putting up a roadside vegetable stand on Willard...there's a fair amount of traffic there, yes? Be a nice supplement to your blogging at World Net Daily.

Reducing military spending is one matter, but selfishly spending thousands of tax dollars so he can use his cell phone when hes supposed to be working? If he wants to call someone he can use the phone at the whitehouse! If he wants to remember a number, try a notepad. Wants to use a calculater, try a calculator. I cant see a single purpose to him spending my money on his own irrisponsible wants.

I find it interesting that we are so quick to talk about the costs of a silly blackberry, when we are still paying for secret service protection on Presidents Carter, Clinton, Bush 41, and Bush 43 (although bush 43 only has it for 10 years). The President of the United States should feel free to spend whatever is necessary to conduct business the way that suits him. To say if he wants to use the phone then use the white house one, is like saying if you need somewhere to sleep rent a small apartment, if you want something to eat, mcdonalds has hamburgers for 49 cents on Wednesdays. There are some costs that are necessary. If you want to talk about silly have you ever seen pictures of the basketball court the Supreme Court has, don't forget most of these members are too frail to play, maybe a pickup game between featuring Scalia, Thomas and Breyer against Roberts, Alito, and Kennedy would be as entertaining as the 10k walker race at the senior olympics.
I am glad we have a President that can be kept up to date on information and communciation.

Like you give a rat's ass, drag on. Puh-lease....your like every other Rethug...out for yourself. who was it that said if i amuse MYSELF thats all i care about

I think Dragons messing with us. I cannot believe somebody can be this concerned about cell-phone use and shoe throwing when there are so many better things to be concerned about in our world today.

Your messing with us dragon...? Please tell me it's so.

Well you caught it mork. I thought it was obvious i was kidding. But there is a serious underlying message to what i was saying, and that is spending my money so that he can break the law is kinda rediculous. This is the equivelent of water-gate. Well no its not but its a much smaller version of watergate. I think that if the secret service thought he could go without one then he should have. Not spend my money so he can use his cell phone during work when he has a system that worked for bush for 8 years and clinton before that.

I conclude that you are serious.
No law has been broken Dragon.
What has gone on here is called Progress. Refusing to adapt to surroundings and circumstances is self-destructive behavior.
According to your argument, the secret service should be in charge of running the country and we should all be riding horse and buggy. This is not the ideology that America was built with.
You refer to this device as a toy but in actual fact it is a very powerful research and communication tool and over the efficiency it will provide him over the term of his presidency will make the few thousand it cost seem measly.
If you honestly think he is spending his time in the oval office watching youtube you have completely failed to recognize the intelligence of this man and the passion he has for the well being of America.

Look, i own a blackberry, and i use it for emails and text messages from my employees all the time. I agree that it can be useful. However Bush was president for 8 years and it never came up that he was hindered by his lack of blackberry. Therefor, since bush didnt need it and it can be used as a toy, the only thing it will add is to function as a toy. As recently as one month ago not having a blackberry and being president was fine. Now all of the sudden its "progress". To me it seems like the kind of forced progress deliberatly designed to over ride the secret service's regulations. I admit the secret service doesnt run our country but they have some jurisdiction and if we dont listen to them they lose that.

Honestly I think if you gave Bush a Blackberry, the first thing he would do is phone somebody to tell them he is calling on a black berry and it wouldn't be long after that he would be watching youtube.
Bush's desire to be behind in the times is not at all relevant to what Obama should or needs to do.

Comparing Bush's intellect to Obama's is a real grin.

I'm with Destry and Mork...progress is a GOOD thing. Say it slowly dragon...progress GOOD....

I can't believe I missed the chance to extend beating the living crap out of draft-dodging, war-monging Dick less Cheney. Leave him out of it? He had his time? Let's move on? Christ almighty, we're going to be paying for that drunkard's incompetence until my grandchildren have grandchildren. You move on. We won't forget.

Dick Cheney? What the heck did he do? You want to talk about a man who really has no power Cheney is it.
@c2r.. progress..... good? Never!
And mork, that doesnt really help your cause. Saying that anyone who has a blackberry would be susceptible to goofing off means that obama shouldnt have a blackberry.

good grief. now i know you're playing us dragon.

Dick cheney. I cant think of a single thing hes done. He mostly just sits in the background and gives advice. Thats what vps do.

sits in the background (code: an undisclosed location) and shoots people in the face when he's not leaking cia operatives names to the press.

or working overtime doing things that require the president extend confidential status to his papers for the next quarter century. if he's done nothing but sit on his ass why are his records treated with the same classification as bush's and exempted from being handed over to be archived?

or working overtime doing things that require the president extend confidential status to his papers for the next quarter century. if he's done nothing but sit on his ass why are his records treated with the same classification as bush's and exempted from being handed over to be archived?

Im not sure what you mean. Your saying, that because your not allowed to see classified doccuments that must mean hes done something wrong.... Well im not really prepared to defend cheney because i dont really know all that much about the man except that if george chose him he must have done so for a reason.

just a thought:
why does the President fly in his own plane and doesn't travel by train or bus - or at least take a scheduled flight?
http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5jE3FlLtgW6TwpHXAGGdF8Y0VSvdAD965PVC00
I think that the costs only of this single flight will exceed the costs of his super-duper special secured blackberry by far.

Thats a good question.. why does the most powerful man in the world insist on silly things such as security when he could save the government some money that could be spent on much more important things! Like making sure that Obama can goof off, watch youtube and play games while hes supposed to be working! I bet that bush actually uses airforce 1 for work! That bastard! Ask clinton, obama or most other democrats, when your being paid by the government, that means your supposed to be goofing off/having sex with your intern. The nerve of bush, demanding to be able to use a plane that is specifically designed so that he can continue to work while in the air and still be safe.

yes, "that he can continue to work while in the air and still be safe."
maybe that's what that phone is intended to do too?

How does a phone keep him safe?