Obama: 10 People Have My Email, Half the Age of My Tweeter
BY Nancy Scola | Friday, July 30 2010
President Barack Obama's appearance on ABC's "The View" yesterday covered much important ground yesterday, but none more so, perhaps, than when the President was asked by the ladies whether he "tweets."
"I don't tweet. I don't tweet on a regular basis," said Obama. Since becoming President, Obama has sometimes exhibited a dismissive streak when it comes to social media. It didn't fail him here. "I think there's an official President's tweet," ehem, we'll take that to mean a Twitter account, "but some 20 year-old is doing a lot of the tweeting. I'm just fessing up here."
Indeed, there is an official President's tweet. It has 1.8 million followers, and its managed by paid White House staff, none whom are that close to teenagerhood.
Asked about the famous National Security Agency-approved Presidential BlackBerry that Obama fought for when he came into office, Obama put the number of people who had its email address at somewhat fewer than the couple dozen that had been reported. As a popper of the bubble that surrounds the President, the BlackBerry, as Obama tells it, seems to have little effect.
"I have a BlackBerry," said Obama, "but only ten people have it. And I've got to admit, it's no fun, because they think it's probably going to be subject to the Presidential Records Act, so nobody wants to send me the real juicy stuff. It's all very official. 'Mr. President, you have a meeting coming up, and we'd like to brief you.' That's all."
Obama was also asked if he has considered switching to an iPhone. Not yet, said the President, but "I do have a Pod."
The discussion starts at about the 1:10 mark in the video above.