Slashdot Mirror

← Back to Stories (view on slashdot.org)

Obama Staffers Followed Palin's Email Lead On Inauguration Day

Posted by timothy on from the why-mess-with-success dept.

theodp writes "Using Yahoo's free e-mail service to conduct government business was good enough for Sarah Palin. And now the Washington Times reports that Obama staffers turned to Gmail on Inauguration Day to conduct their business. Those wishing to contact members of the incoming Obama administration were instructed to contact staffers at wh.LASTNAME@gmail.com until official White House e-mail addresses became available."

6 of 407 comments (clear)

  1. Am I missing something? by Jaysyn · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Are they kicking & screaming about it being a private account or something? I mean it doesn't sound like they are hiding anything by publicly asking people to use it to contact them temporarily.

    --
    There is a war going on for your mind.
    1. Re:Am I missing something? by FireStormZ · · Score: 5, Insightful

      "Thirdly, Obama has already made it clear that this White House is going to be much more transparant. Finally"

      And Bill Clinton Promised to be the 'most ethical administration in history', W promised to 'change the partisan tone', ..., ...

      Its frightening that you take a politician *especially one from the Chicago political machine* at his word..

      --
      "Ahh! Arrogance and stupidity in the same package, how efficient of you!" --Londo Molari
  2. This submission is a troll by Hays · · Score: 5, Insightful

    This is clearly a transitional measure, and not a concerted effort to hide communications from mandated records keeping procedures as Bush and Palin are accused of.

  3. Re:How long? by east+coast · · Score: 5, Insightful

    The problem is that every administration brings in their own IT staff which, to the best of my knowledge, doesn't get their hands into anything until day 1.

    It's a pretty poor system, IMHO. Imagine a complete refresh of IT staff in an office. There would be chaos for weeks.

    --
    Dedicated Cthulhu Cultist since 4523 BC.
  4. Comment removed by account_deleted · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Comment removed based on user account deletion

  5. This is not the same thing as Palin's situation by Anonymusing · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Palin staff: already had government e-mail accounts, but used Yahoo accounts to conduct business that they did not want to reveal to the public.

    Obama staff: losing one e-mail account before they gained their next one, so for a few hours they needed transitional addresses, and Gmail was free and easy to use.

    If Obama staff continue to use Gmail for government business, THEN we can equate these two situations. But not until then.

    --
    Liberal? Conservative? Compare perspectives at Left-Right