Michelle Malkin Column A Bit Misguided in Blackberry/E-Mail Issue With Barack Obama, Sarah Palin
We’ve had numerous stories in the media about President-elect Barack Obama supposedly wanting to continue normal/personal use of his Blackberry device. A part of me can understand the desire to want to maintain a sense of privacy. But, as we know, politicians sacrifice a lot of privacy a lot of people hold dear when they take on this responsibility (particularly as a national politician). It’s the nature of the beast. With this as the backdrop, I happened to stumble across an itemwritten by conservative columnist/blogger/commentator Michelle Malkin, who is known to be just slightly outspoken and opinionated. In this item, she discussed Obama’s Blackberry (the president-elect’s desire to maintain use of it vs. public access to the records as such a high-ranking official). A Malkin “Afterthought” read this way:
“Afterthought: Will the same people who lambasted Sarah Palin for keeping a personal Yahoo! account and using her Blackberry attack Obama for ‘evading public disclosure,’ too?”
One thing that is worth noting is that Sarah Palin’s trouble was self-inflicted. The controversy with Palin (certainly, she was no stranger to controversy and continues to be a magnet for controversy) was that she was using her personal Yahoo e-mail account to conduct state government business and possibly trying to use personal privacy as a shield from the media and the public.
From Time Magazine:
“The Alaska governor could also face charges for conducting official state business using her personal, unarchived e-mail account (a crime); some critics accuse her of skirting freedom-of-information laws in doing so. An Alaska Republican activist is trying to force Palin to release more than 1,100 e-mails she withheld from a public-records request, the Washington Post reported last week.”
So, Malkin is not being particularly clear or straight up when attempting to draw the comparison between the two controversies (as far as the e-mail aspect is concerned). If the device or technology is being used to conduct government business than a politician can hardly expect a level of privacy. But, if a device is of a personal nature then there should be some flexibility for politicians (as long as it is not used for official government business). I am not familiar with the controversy Palin may have had with a Blackberry, but the e-mail issue was an issue that was publicly vetted.
Time Magazine:
http://www.time.com/time/politics/article/0,8599,1842097,00.html
Michelle Malkin:
http://michellemalkin.com/2008/11/26/obama-wants-his-blackberry-back/
As long as the records are kept. right, right??? Oh that’s right he is a Democrat, they don’t have to obey the law.
Every foreign intelligence service on the planet is hoping he keeps it.
You know, the same folks who monitored every unsecure phone conversation Between Bill and Monica and then later monitored everything Monica said to mommy and all her friends.
This is a measure of how ill-equipped and ill-prepared Obama is for any serious adult work.
Tully Mars
November 30, 2008 at 6:51 pm
Tully Mars, your last sentence is quite a sweeping statement (and quite funny in comparison to the last eight years under President George W. Bush)considering the man is still a month away from taking office. Somehow, I doubt that whether or not he maintains his Blackberry or not will be a pivotal issue to the nation with the economic crisis, wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, low worldwide opinions of the United States and other issues. I am thinking the Blackberry issue will probably not be the highest priority for the new administration.I am sure President-elect Obama will abide by the law and that will be refreshing for the American people … particularly after the last eight years.
Sandy Gholston
November 30, 2008 at 7:28 pm
You don’t honestly think there’s such a thing as “personal” (i.e.”not official”) business for a sitting US president, do you? What could B.O. possibly do with his Blackberry that would not compromise both his safety and national security? Names, dates, schedules, passwords, correspondence? Maybe just playing solitaire? Do you think Obama would never attempt to correspond surreptitiously with whomever he wanted whenever he wished? Hackers eavesdropping, reading email, etc. The consequences are staggering – and for him to talk about how he’s negotiating with the Secret Service to keep it. the issue isn’t about the Blackberry itself, it’s about him being a naive fool – and as you point out, he’s only got a few weeks to grow up!
Dale
December 3, 2008 at 10:25 pm
Dale,
I understand there are still a lot of people having a difficult time coming to grips with the mandate the American people of the United States gave President-elect Barack Obama during the November election. I would refer you to this comment I made: “A part of me can understand the desire to want to maintain a sense of privacy. But, as we know, politicians sacrifice a lot of privacy a lot of people hold dear when they take on this responsibility (particularly as a national politician).” I think we all understand the issues that are involved (the public’s right to know, privacy, safety, etc.). You make a lot of assumptions about what he would be continuing to use his Blacberry for … if in fact he would continue to use it at all (something that has not been settled). But, boy, to use this relatively minor issue as a way of bashing President-elect Obama (calling him a “naive fool”) seems like a stretch to me … not to mention bitter. I think there are far more important issues (housing crisis, economic bailouts, the economy, war in Iraq, war in Afghanistan, etc.) that rightly are more important issues and have the President-elect’s focus.
Sandy Gholston
December 4, 2008 at 1:17 pm