Senators can filter information on their own, presidents can not

I’m asking the question since Obama wants to keep his Blackberry so he can “break through the isolation” of the White House. This is one of the issues I knew would come up since Obama has no management or executive leadership experience.

Whether a the CEO of a corporation or the president of the United States, you need to have top-notch people surrounding you to ensure they filter information forwarded to you appropriately. Your time is very valuable.

A good pop-culture reference would be the two secretaries that worked for the president on the NBC drama The West Wing. Both managed his contacts appropriately, and his schedule with a strong arm.

Obama needs to be willing to give up the Blackberry and understand that he will soon be a leader who must trust his staff to filter the information that he receives on a daily basis. There is no way that he will be able to filter information on his own. Talk about extreme burn-out.

As a senator you can afford to filter information on your own, as president, you can not.

I’m not suggesting that his staff filters information to protect him in a legal sort of way, more of a filter to protect his health and sanity.

Hat tip to Malkin who questions who he wants to keep in touch with and wonders if the media will start asking questions about who Obama e-mails on his Blackberry.