Content Matters

This week's celebrity gossip brought forth the "news" that Barack Obama and 23-year old actress Scarlett Johansson have become email pals.  The actress also has campaigned for Obama and appeared in the "Yes We Can" video. David Letterman joked that, "not to be outdone, John McCain announced that for the past 58 years, he has regularly exchanged saucy telegraphs with Carol Channing." But, jokes aside, I found it interesting that Obama is an active email user.

The question this raised in my mind is - how important is it that our President be reasonably technologically aware? One could argue that President is one of the few jobs in our society where the person would not actually have to work any technology themselves in order to do the job. After all, we probably wouldn't want the President "biting Zombie chumps" on Facebook in their spare time and they have assistants who dial the phone for them.

At the same time, our economy is transforming at an incredibly rapid pace and it would be nice to think that our leaders have some real comprehension of those changes. I think that it's evident that most of Congress, when voting on net neutrality, had no real understanding of the issue, so instead turned to their "experts" (aka the telco lobbyists). I'd wager a year's salary that few members of the New York State legislature could accurately describe an affiliate marketing program (and why it's really just another form of advertising, not a true sales presence), yet they voted to force Amazon and others to collect and remit sales tax.

I wouldn't work for a company today whose CEO couldn't navigate a browser and email. Should our standard for the highest elected office be different?

What are your thoughts? Post in the comments, please.

UPDATE: This was just posted to the Huffington Post: McCain Admits He Doesn't Know How to Use a Computer. I guess my post was timely.