All Blog Posts from Political Hotsheet

Since President Obama entered the White House, there has quite a bit of speculation both about his spirituality and his use of a BlackBerry. It turns out the two issues are linked.

Mr. Obama revealed in an interview with ABC News that he starts every morning by reviewing a "devotional" he receives on his BlackBerry from his Faith and Neighborhood Initiatives Director Joshua DuBois. The message includes Christian passages and scripture and sometimes quotes from other faiths to reflect on, the president said.

On top of that, Mr. Obama said he prays every night before going to bed.

"When you're in this job, I think that every president whose had it is constantly humbled by the degree to which there are a lot of issues out there, and the notion that one person alone can solve all these problems I think you're cured of that illusion very quickly," the president said. "This is something where you just hope that you are aligning your work with His purposes and that you're attuned to the needs of the people you're there to serve."

Mr. Obama said his family has not yet picked a church in Washington because they are concerned about disrupting any congregration's regular services, and they are also trying to make the transition to their new home easier for the Obama daughters. The president has, however, been attending a church in Camp David.

"I've got a lot of stuff on my plate, and I need guidance all the time," he said.

President Obama made an unannounced visit to the White House press room Thursday, engaging in some friendly banter that centered more on basketball and Blackberrys than Guantanamo and the global economic collapse.

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This is written by Declan McCullagh, CNET News' chief political correspondent.

Barack Obama will be able to keep his beloved BlackBerry, an aide confirmed on Thursday, making him the first U.S. president to use e-mail regularly.

White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs told reporters that, thanks to a "compromise," his boss will be able to keep a security-enhanced BlackBerry and use it for e-mail.

That will, Gibbs said, allow Obama to continue to keep in touch with people and avoid getting "stuck in a bubble." (The new Washington insider test: Do you know the president's secret e-mail address?)

Gibbs didn't offer details, but the contours of the compromise seem to be: official, work-related e-mail messages will be subject to the Presidential Records Act and the possibility of eventual disclosure. But strictly personal communications -- with family, for instance -- will be exempt.

This makes sense. As we reported last week, federal law explicitly exempts from disclosure any "personal records" that do not relate to the president's official function.

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This is written by Declan McCullagh, CNET News' chief political correspondent

Forget the important task of opening up government. Never mind a recession that seems to be trying hard to be promoted to a full-scale depression. In geekish circles, the question of the week has been: Will President Obama manage to hang on to his BlackBerry?

Obama told us more than a year ago that it was his favorite gadget, and he was rarely without it during the 2008 campaign. In 2001, George Bush famously gave up e-mail, and there was plenty of speculation that Obama would too, either for privacy or open-government reasons. Last week, we suggested the Sectera Edge as a secure PDA-phone--it's rated for SECRET data and TOP SECRET voice--that might do the trick.

Now we're hearing from a report by CBS News chief political consultant Marc Ambinder on The Atlantic's Web site that Obama will be able to keep his BlackBerry after all. Apparently it's been outfitted with encrypted software secure enough for routine personal messages--meaning, if this report is true, there will be no Microsoft Windows Mobile in the president's immediate future.

We're still waiting, by the way, to hear back from the National Security Agency. They said they'd be happy to entertain questions from us, and it's been over a week. We're not holding our breath.

It sounds like Barack Obama has won the war to keep his BlackBerry after he crosses the presidential threshold, but the rest of the incoming White House staff might have lost a battle over another commonplace tech tool.

Politico's Ben Smith writes that the new administration's legal team is signing everybody off of instant messenger.
"They just told us flat out we couldn't IM in the White House," one senior staffer told Politico.

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On the campaign trail, President-elect Barack Obama was famous for constantly checking his Blackberry to keep up with friends and campaign staff. But a few weeks ago reports surfaced that he would have to give up the device over security and political concerns. No president in the Internet age so far has had his own e-mail account.

But Mr. Obama has a message to those who want to take his cherished Blackberry: Not So Fast.

In an interview with CNBC's John Harwood, Mr. Obama said he's still "fighting" to keep it.

"They're going to pry it out of my hands," he said. "It's the hardest thing about being president… How do you stay in touch with the flow of everyday life?"

"I don't know that I'll win," he adds. "I'm still fighting it… It's not just the flow of information. I mean, I can get somebody to print out clips for me, and I can read newspapers. What it has to do with is having mechanisms where you are interacting with people who are outside of the White House in a meaningful way. And I've got to look for every opportunity to do that -- ways that aren't scripted, ways that aren't controlled, ways where, you know, people aren't just complimenting you or standing up when you enter into a room, ways of staying grounded."

Here's a transcript of the whole exchange with Harwood, in which Mr. Obama also talks about the now famous shirtless picture of him while he was vacationing in Hawaii.

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