Surely you can’t have missed the controversy over BlackBerry One, wherein new President Barack Obama (OMG… I’m getting a little verklemt….) told news sources that the Secret Service would take his BlackBerry when they pry it from his cold, dead hands. Looks like it’s not going to come to that, which is a relief…. for Chrissake, he is the friggin’ President.
Obama, who, unlike certain previous presidents, has opposable thumbs, has long used the smartphone, but spooks in the gov’t frown like school librarians at such things, according to CNN: “E-mail has long been treated with suspicion by the Secret Service because of fears it could be hacked into by foreign espionage agencies, or that sensitive information could reach the public domain via a single mistaken strike of the ‘send’ key.”
To be fair, I don’t blame them; just being on the campaign’s email list is how I got that grainy webcam picture of Barack’s — ummmmm… which I erased immediately, of course… forget I said anything.
In any event, the Atlantic Monthly is reporting that the NSA’s agreed to let Barack keep his smartphone, with the proviso that he get a souped-up, security-enhanced model, approved at what seems to me like a not-that-whopping $3,350. For a government that pays $6 gazillion and change for the ass warmer on an F-22, that seems like a bargain.
More importantly, those of us in the Presidential Groupie Committee have been watching with trepidation as Obama gamely did battle against the spooky tech haters, who ensured that Clinton and Bush both gave up email, for all practical purposes, when they assumed office.
What’s more, Republican poopypantses and crybaby manufacturers of nonexistent Obama Drama have hurled accusations at Barack of being un-American by favoring the products of BlackBerry, a Canadian company, over those of some unnamed American business.
They’ve all lost: They can Monday morning quarterback all they want, but the fact is that the office of the POTUS has moved into the 21st Century — kicking and screaming, as usual.