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Obama: "I'm not allowed for security reasons to have an iPhone"
- killertypo 13y agohe's a figurehead and obscured from reality from the most part. Who cares what device he's on, he doesn't make any difference either way. They could put a log in his place and it would have the same effect on this country.
- mullingitover 13y agoI think you may have your countries mixed up. The US President's role was a compromise between different parties, some of which were demanding a king. As such, he has far more power than, say, the President of Iran. An entire branch of government reports to this one person, so calling him a 'figurehead' is kind of a stretch. The man can literally have you kidnapped, taken to another country, and tortured.
- chris_mahan 13y agoYet he is unable to get an iPhone. If I were him I would have made a sign that says "You're fired" on his desk and every time someone gives the wrong answer, I would just start to point toward the sign and watch whether the people change their tune.
- baddox 13y agoHe could get an iPhone is he really wanted to. Who would stop him? It's pretty clear that he is choosing to abide by the security recommendations of people who know more about these things than he does.
- neurotech1 13y ago1) He is legally required to maintain official records, as per the Presidential Records Act. This was passed after the Nixon-Watergate scandal. http://www.whitehouse.gov/blog/Reality-Check-The-Presidential-Records-Act http://www.whitehouse.gov/blog/Reality-Check-The-Presidentia... 2) If President Obama "demanded" a iPhone because of his personal choice, it would be expensive and take a long time to secure the iOS for him. The considerable expense would be politically challenging to explain. 3) Secret Service agents are trained protect the President, and maintain his safety even if that means disobeying a direct order that would compromise his safety.
- chris_mahan 13y agoWhat about phone calls, personal conversations? If the First Lady decides to hint to her husband that she's, hum, in the mood for some married people activities, does that become part of the Presidential Record? What if the President thinks aloud, to himself, in the shower. What if, water running, soap in hand, he wonders aloud "I wonder what really killed Yasser." Does that become part of the Presidential Record? What if he wants to watch a little, hum, adult entertainment, to relax after a long day at the office, does that become part of the Presidential Record? What if he decides to, hum, read a little science fiction, and he says to his wife: Michelle, in this book they talk about the end of the world, and how the United States turns into an Empire and tries to win WWIII, and it's fairly convincing, and Michelle replies "put the book down and go to sleep". Does that become part of the Presidential Record? So what if the President, midday, wants to see the score of his favorite basketball team as they are playing, but he's in a phone call with some union lobbyist/fundraiser/golfbuddy, can he not look at his cell phone like the rest of us and just click refresh? And does that too become part of the Presidential Record? If the President of the United States has to live with so little privacy, and if he's frustrated (who wouldn't?), then does it not make sense, in perhaps a perverse way, that the privacy of the common American be of so little value? If the Commander in Chief of the Armed Forces does not have privacy, why should anybody else? Think about that for a second. Now, I think that if some foreign state is trying to assassinate the President of the United States, I don't think their plan will be foiled just because he's not carrying an iPhone.
- r00fus 13y ago> Yet he is unable to get an iPhone. Maybe this has more to do with Apple really not caring about setting up an entire secured structure to match what BlackBerry offers just to have the President be their walking advertisement.
- chris_mahan 13y agoAlthough, things seem to be working out a lot better for Apple than for Blackberry.
- sliverstorm 13y agoWell, now I can list at least one reason chris_mahan would make a terrible president.
- chris_mahan 13y agoWhat do you think the role of the President is, according to the Constitution?
- sliverstorm 13y agoI don't even need to go into the Constitution; figurehead or no, it sounds like you'd make one colossal jerk as President. Which would, among other things, mean you would be a terrible figurehead.
- chris_mahan 13y agoOk, you're right. Here, I won't run for the Presidency of the United States in 2016. Happy? Let's be clear, though: if the President can't stand up to Congress and the Supreme Court, the country will suffer. It's not called checks and balances for nothing.
- 6d0debc071 13y ago> Yet he is unable to get an iPhone. May just be that he takes his advisers seriously. I suspect most of us have had jobs at one point or another where, as subject specialists, on paper our managers were making decisions - but realistically they went with what we told them was the best option on a very general analysis of averages and trade-offs that we gave them. There are limits to how specific the power you can exercises is and still remain meaningful.
- elwell 13y agoWell, now I can list at least one reason chris_mahan would make an excellent dictator.
- chris_mahan 13y agoBecause I am willing to fire people who refuse to do what I tell them to? Maybe I should be CEO instead. In any case, take a look at the last paragraph of Article 2, section 1 of the US Constitution ( http://www.archives.gov/exhibits/charters/constitution_transcript.html http://www.archives.gov/exhibits/charters/constitution_trans... ) [quote] Before he enter on the Execution of his Office, he shall take the following Oath or Affirmation:--"I do solemnly swear (or affirm) that I will faithfully execute the Office of President of the United States, and will to the best of my Ability, preserve, protect and defend the Constitution of the United States." [/quote] He swears to faithfully execute the... Wait, what does that mean? Is he the Chief Executive Officer? The Commander in Chief? Ohhh, I see, the CEO can fire for insubordination, but not the President? (BO, if you read this, only three more years to go. You can do it.) Ewell, thank you for the compliment, not too many people could pull it off.
- PhasmaFelis 13y agoMan, I've had bosses like you. I quit that job pretty quick. Obviously he could have an iPhone if he put his foot down and threw a tantrum, as you suggest. "I can't have an iPhone" means "I'm not stupid enough to blow off the advice of a bunch of guys whose entire full-time job is keeping me safe and secure, just to get a fun toy."
- chris_mahan 13y agoIf you read the article, you will see that the President of the United States feels like he's in a bubble and is disconnected from the average American. I don't think that what voters elect their President to do. This might also explain a lot of things about how things are run in Washington. Too much security apparently means the President is disconnected with the pulse of America, and is drifting aside. He's essentially saying the security apparatus is making him ineffective. If I was in his shoes, and I was willing to send 18 years old men and women to combat in Afghanistan to face the Taliban, I would also take on a certain amount of personal risk to insure I was leading the country in the right direction. Here I reproduce the relevant part of the article verbatim, for those who have not read the article: [quote]The president often privately talks of how frustrated he is about the White House "bubble" which makes it very difficult to communicate with normal people or to get information from the outside world that is not filtered for him by aides or the press. Aides say his Blackberry is a way to escape that confinement.[/quote]
- dragonwriter 13y ago> The US President's role was a compromise between different parties, some of which were demanding a king. As such, he has far more power than, say, the President of Iran But less, with regard to the overall power of their respective government, than his actual Iranian equivalent (that is, Iran's head of state), who is not the President.
- Lambdanaut 13y agoOnly somebody completely ignorant of executive roles would make a claim like that. He's got a lot more effect on the country than a senator, who arguably has a lot of effect on this country.
- D9u 13y agoOnly someone completely in denial would not see that Mr. Obama, as President, has exhibited far more acceptance for the previous administration's policies than he had for said policies during his initial campaign for the Presidency. Such continuation of the previous administration's policies leads many to believe that the Presidency is, in fact, a figurehead position. The fact that Senator Obama campaigned so vocally against the domestic surveillance program[s] as well as the "Patriot Act" and then chose to extend these policies after being elected President is quite disturbing to those of use who view this situation with any semblance of objectivity. My views are in no way "racist," nor do I "hate" President Obama. I actually admire a man who came from a broken home, struggled with the issues he worked through during his lifetime, continued his education, and made millions before ascending to the pinnacle of power within the USA, as well as the world, yet said "power" is in question when we see the present situation. What has really changed since President Obama took office? What has remained the same as before he was elected?
- deleted 13y ago[deleted]
- cmelbye 13y agoThat scenario is only one of many possible explanations for why that happened.
- darkarmani 13y ago> Mr. Obama, as President, has exhibited far more acceptance for the previous administration's policies than he had for said policies during his initial campaign for the Presidency. Wasn't the previous administration from across the aisle? Don't you have to campaign against that status quo to get elected when you are the opposite party?
- sliverstorm 13y agoEven if we suppose he is only a figurehead, we already know that he sees a lot of highly classified information. That alone is reason enough to be concerned about taps on his lines of communication.
- deleted 13y ago[deleted]
- absconditus 13y agoWhat does Blackberry's supposed great security actually entail?
- harshreality 13y agoDetails: http://electrospaces.blogspot.com/2013/04/how-obamas-blackberry-got-secured.html http://electrospaces.blogspot.com/2013/04/how-obamas-blackbe... SecurVoice software by Genesis Key, a short list of contacts that also have compatible communications devices (unclear if that's required or if that's only for classified communications, since a photo caption has Obama calling Romney), and possibly other hardware or firmware modifications that are not disclosed. IMEI kept secret, and the phone might only connect to a special secured base station.
- salient 13y agoIt's not just a "Blackberry". It's custom hardware with custom security.
- harshreality 13y agocustom hardware Source?
- shitlord 13y agoIs that not common sense?
- stcredzero 13y agoApps and shortsighted or ignorant programming practices by app devs are a big source of security holes for iOS.
- hendzen 13y agoThey own a subsidiary, called Certicom that owns nearly all of the key patents surrounding Elliptic Curve Cryptography.
- J_Darnley 13y agoYou mean the NSA might spy on him if he uses one? Not that they can't spy on him if he uses a different one.
- D9u 13y agoIf NSA can spy on a device, then others can also.
- downer92 13y ago1. The soft keyboard 2. The mandatory glass encased cameras on both sides, that cannot be reliably AND CONVENIENTLY covered at all times, nor readily dissected from the main board 3. The accelerometer that perpetually records its state 4. The continuously cached screenshots retained for transition animations. 5. Potential to compromise by attacking the combination data/power port, with a malicious charging cable. 6. Battery lock-in. 7. The walled-garden integrated app environment represents proprietary intellectual property, probably hinting at the Apple kill switch, which probably requires the App Store and iTunes to remain present on the device, in order to receive any level tech support from Apple. I bet Apple refused to budge on that. Let's face it though, they could just jailbreak the software environment if it was really that serious. At that point though, Obama would probably need the NSA to rewrite the phone's OS from the Darwin kernel all the way up. All of these things seem like opportunities for vulnerability in my book. Cell phone microphones in general are a problem, especially with all the hype regarding ultrasonic mesh networks, lately. Some BlackBerry models have all of this, but I bet the one he has doesn't have items one through four.
- MrZongle2 13y agoKind of a passive statement, isn't it? It makes him sound like he's not in charge of anything, let alone sitting in the most powerful office in the United States. A far stronger, leaderlike statement would have been, "for security reasons, I have chosen not to have an iPhone."
- res0nat0r 13y agoHe's also not allowed to walk across the street from the White House to have a beer at the local bar, or drive his own car around DC because of the restrictions the Secret Service places on him.
- bradleyland 13y agoMaybe he didn't choose. He's the President, not the Dear Leader.
- mike-cardwell 13y agoYeah. People seem to forget that the Presidents job isn't to, rule over them.
- PhasmaFelis 13y agoWell, the actual meaning is "I could have an iPhone but I'm not stupid enough to blow off the advice of a bunch of guys whose entire full-time job is keeping me safe and secure." Which seems both clear and wise to me, but we have this weird thing about expecting our leaders to be Lone Cowboy types who don't take no guff from nobody.
- MrZongle2 13y agoI just wish for some leaders to act like leaders.
- voltagex_ 13y agoI wonder what the difference between the DoD certifying iPhones for use in the military and this situation is?
- shitlord 13y agoIt's a pretty big one. DoD certified iPhones only for nonsensitive work (low-level clearance stuff). In contrast, the sort of work POTUS does will most certainly be sensitive. For things of that sort, the operating system AND the hardware are extensively vetted.
- voltagex_ 13y agoMakes sense, thanks.
- gvb 13y agoCommander In Chief vs. faceless private. 1 of 1 vs. 1 of 766,984. Nuclear weapons vs. M16.
- deleted 13y ago[deleted]
- lhgaghl 13y agoI'm not allowed for security reasons to have an iPhone but we can fix this with HOPE CHANGE
- abalone 13y agoThe more mission-critical you get, the more you're concerned with reliability over features. The reason the president uses a Blackberry is probably similar to the reason the latest Mars rover uses an ancient PowerPC. It's been battle tested long enough and subject to enough scrutiny that you don't have to worry about it as much.
- cstejerean 13y agoAs far as I remember from back in '08, Obama uses a blackberry because he asked for it after winning the presidency. He used it heavily during his campaign, and wanted to hang on to it after getting the presidency. They had to go through some trouble to create an NSA certified version for Obama to use.
- mikelyons 13y agoDoD and Boeing have been on BB with special security for ages.
- lhgaghl 13y agoWe have a predicament. Either iPhone is insecure or the US government security is insecure, or both. Pick one. I predict the general consensus will be something moronic like "the government needs a different type of security", so they're both secure.