Barack Obama, on his way to a campaign rally in New Hampshire last January, paused to relax and keep in touch. (
WASHINGTON — There is one addiction President Obama will not have to kick: his BlackBerry.
For more than two months, Mr. Obama has been waging a vigorous battle with his handlers to keep his BlackBerry, which like millions of other Americans he has relied upon for years to stay connected with friends and advisers. (And, of course, to get Chicago White Sox scores.)
He won the fight, aides disclosed Thursday, but the privilege of becoming the nation’s first e-mailing president comes with a specific set of rules.
“The president has a BlackBerry through a compromise that allows him to stay in touch with senior staff and a small group of personal friends,” said Robert Gibbs, his spokesman, “in a way that use will be limited and that the security is enhanced to ensure his ability to communicate.”
First, only a select circle of people will have his address, creating a true hierarchy for who makes the cut and who does not.
Second, anyone placed on the A-list to receive his e-mail address must first receive a briefing from the White House counsel’s office.
Third, messages from the president will be designed so they cannot be forwarded.
The battle over whether the president could keep his BlackBerry has been fueled to a large degree by Mr. Obama himself, who mentioned it again and again. He would not take no for an answer. In an interview this month, he worried aloud, “They’re going to pry it out of my hands.”
Mr. Obama received his BlackBerry on Tuesday, but officials declined to specify what kind. In a conversation with reporters on Thursday evening, he said, “I don’t think it’s actually up and running yet.”
Throughout the transition, several of his aides talked openly about Mr. Obama’s obsession with keeping his BlackBerry. And some of them, when speaking privately, said they were eager to have his device taken away so the case could be closed.
When asked Thursday whether his advisers were trying to wean Mr. Obama from his BlackBerry, which he often wears attached to his belt, Mr. Gibbs conceded, “Nobody can do that.”
“He believes it’s a way of keeping in touch with folks,” Mr. Gibbs told reporters, “a way of doing it outside of getting stuck in a bubble.”
The presidency, for all the power afforded by the office, has been deprived of the tools of modern communication. George W. Bush famously sent a farewell e-mail address to his friends when he took office eight years ago.
While lawyers and the Secret Service balked at Mr. Obama’s initial requests to allow him to keep his BlackBerry, they acquiesced as long as the president — and those corresponding with him — agreed to strict rules. And he had to agree to use a specially made device, which must be approved by national security officials.
“It’s a pretty small group of people,” Mr. Gibbs said, explaining who would be allowed to e-mail the president.
All of Mr. Obama’s e-mail messages remain subject to the Presidential Records Act, which could ultimately put his words into the public domain, as well as under the threat of subpoenas. That was a caveat, aides said, that did not dissuade the president.
The news was disclosed by Mr. Gibbs at the first White House press briefing, on Thursday afternoon. Several questions about the presidential e-mail, however, were not addressed.
“What’s the address?” Major Garrett from Fox News asked Mr. Gibbs.
Mark Knoller from CBS Radio News said, “None-of-your-business.com.”
It will not, however, be the same address he has used for years. That one is already programmed into too many BlackBerrys.
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President Barack Obama will be the first president to use a BlackBerry while in the White House. (AP/ABC News)
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