A Digital Kid In An Analog World

We've all heard about President Obama and his Blackberry™ obsession. But this was a bit of a shock to read.

Two years after launching the most technologically savvy presidential campaign in history, Obama officials ran smack into the constraints of the federal bureaucracy yesterday, encountering a jumble of disconnected phone lines, old computer software, and security regulations forbidding outside e-mail accounts.

What does that mean in 21st-century terms? No Facebook to communicate with supporters. No outside e-mail log-ins. No instant messaging. Hard adjustments for a staff that helped sweep Obama to power through, among other things, relentless online social networking.

"It is kind of like going from an Xbox to an Atari," Obama spokesman Bill Burton said of his new digs.

And we wonder why the Bush administration never caught Osama bin Laden or never spoke with Middle Eastern leaders. They couldn't even get an outside line! Here's a hint: Dial 9.