Friday, January 23, 2009

Obama BlackBerrying + YouTubing

From Friday's daily press briefing with White House press secretary Robert Gibbs:

Reporter: Did the President give his email address to anybody in that bipartisan congressional meeting today?

Gibbs: I was going to think of something cute on the email address, but nothing comes to mind that would be good. I think we covered the BlackBerry yesterday, that there's a small group of people that are able to BlackBerry with the President so that he can stay in touch with them.

Gibbs: I think that the President has certainly asked members of Congress that have ideas to call the White House. I know that Rahm [Emanuel] has certainly given out his cell phone number to members of the House, the Senate and probably a lot of you all in here -- (laughter) -- to stay in touch if people have ideas that meet the President's test of getting the economy moving again.

Reporter: On his BlackBerry, Robert -- the President said yesterday when he left here that it wasn't up and running yet. Is it up and running today?

Gibbs: I will check... I believe that it is. But I will -- I will double check on that.

... and a bit about Obama's weekly radio address, which has also been posted on video-sharing site YouTube in the weeks leading up to his inauguration:

Reporter: Are you going to keep posting that on YouTube or is it going to go on the White House -- a video of that going to go on...

Gibbs: I believe it will go on the White House Web site. You know, the hope is that -- the President talked about making sure the American people understand what he's thinking and what goes into his decision-making process, and we think YouTube and other outlets, the Web site, are good ways for the American people to understand where he is and what he's thinking. And we'll continue to do that. I think he's excited about doing that.