What Good Is Your Blackberry, Mr. President, If You Never Use It?

Just days after becoming President, I recall a picture of President Obama at the White House, using his Blackberry smart phone. The accompanying article swooned over how tech savvy this President was. Great, but it seems that the President rarely uses his Blackberry when it comes to governing and, more importantly, leadership. How much different would life be if he had picked up his Blackberry and made the following calls:

• Several months ago, a flotilla of ships headed for the Gaza Strip from Turkish ports, supposedly carrying only non-military, humanitarian cargo to relieve the suffering of Palestinians in Gaza. This flotilla would be in violation of the naval blockade that Israel has imposed on the Gaza Strip and had all of the potential for an ugly confrontation. And this is exactly what happened, Israeli ships and commandos attempted to stop the flotilla and violence erupted, resulting in numerous deaths. I would have hoped that the President would have made a few calls on his Blackberry (or whatever the President uses to call foreign leaders) to the leaders of both Israel and Turkey and tried to personally work out some way for the non-military goods to reach those in need and avoid a fatal confrontation. Apparently those calls were never made and many people lost their lives as a result.
• As most of you know, there is a highly volatile debate going on in New York City about whether or not a Muslim mosque should be allowed to be built in the same neighborhood of the World Trade Center footprint. Some Americans who had lost loved ones on September 11, 2001 felt that since they had lost their loved ones because of attacks by Muslim radicals that it would be better and more sensitive to their feelings if the mosque was moved a little further away from Ground Zero, even though the mosque supporters were well within their rights to build where they want to build. If he had any foresight, the President could have made a few calls and tried to mediate a viable solution before the entire matter got politicized. He did not make that call and now the debate rages on and extends into areas (e.g. freedom of religion) that never should have been reached to begin with. In fact, the President added to the firestorm by throwing a verbal grenade into the issue at a dinner he was speaking at and then spent the following few days trying to put the grenade back together. He reached out and conducted the "beer summit" to smooth over hurt feelings between one of his friends and a Boston area policeman, why not take the initiative early on, make a few calls, and smooth over hurt feelings in this case? It's called leadership and his Blackberry would have served him well in this regard.
• Now we have a small time, small town, and small minded minister in Florida that has been threatening to burn copies of the Quran on the anniversary of 9-11 to protest the Muslim religion. Rightly so, just about everyone in public office, both Democrats and Republicans, find this concept repugnant and are worried how it will affect the safety of our troops and ordinary American citizens overseas. Although this minister has the freedom to do this under the Constitution, shouldn't the President gotten on his Blackberry and maybe made a call to this gentleman and appraise him of the danger he could be causing and ask him to stop the burning? He made the call when his friend got entangled with a police matter, a matter that affected very few people? Why could he not make a call on a matter that has world wide repercussions? The press crucified Bush when he refused to talk to Cindy Sheehan, whose son was killed in fighting in Iraq. By not talking to this minister on this critical matter, Obama looks just like Bush on Sheehan, make the call, have the discussion. [On a side note, what does it say about the country's foreign policy when a small time minister in Florida can come up with a screw ball stunt like this and possibly upset the entire foreign policy strategy?]
• When Charles Rangel likened Americans opposed to Obama Care to the racists who opposed the civil rights movement of the 1960s or when a Texas Congresswoman did the same analogy or when Florida Congressman Grayson likened those Americans opposed to Obama's policies to terrorists, knuckle dragging Neanderthals in white sheets or when Pelosi called those opposed to Obama Care as being unpatriotic or when one of his czars called Republicans a__h___ s, the President, in my opinion, should have whipped out that Blackberry and told all of these Democrats to knock it off for a few reasons. First, he is the President of the entire country and allowing Americans citizens to be called these degrading names for expressing their opinions serves no constructive purpose and further divides the country. Second, from a political strength perspective, he has weakened himself since you cannot allow citizens to be called racist, Neanderthal, unpatriotic, white sheet wearing a__h___s and expect those same people to take you seriously on anything going forward. He should have made a few calls and told these people to cool the wild rhetoric, for the good of the country and the good of his Presidency. Alas, it does not appear any of these called were ever made.
• When the BP oil rig blew up in the spring, the President should have burned up that Blackberry on both domestic and overseas calls. Domestically, he should have made a call to every domestic oil industry company and immediately called them together in a search for the best ideas for stopping the runaway well. Overseas calls should have included calls to foreign governments and foreign companies that had any kind of expertise that we could have used to stop the well. It does not appear any of those calls were made since it took months and months to cap the darn well. We also now know that some foreign entities did offer their help only to have their calls symbolically not returned.

Imagine if the President had made those calls and how much better the world might be today. Humanitarian aid might be reaching the Gaza Strip in the absence of any deaths, Israel and Turkey might be on better speaking terms if they were brought together to work on a peaceful flotilla, we might be talking about the opening of the NFL season rather than a religious book burning or a controversial mosque in NYC, Obama's foreign policy relative to the Muslim world might still be intact rather than in imminent danger, the President might be governing a more united country if he had reigned in the name calling of ordinary American citizens, and the Gulf and the Gulf states might have incurred far less damage than they did from the BP well. Technology, no matter how up-to-date does not matter if you do not use it, Mr. President.



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