The First Presidential Blogger

For whatever reason, a scene recently popped into my head from the movie "13 Days". Actually, I know the reason: its that I fancy myself a corporate blogger. I imagine my blog posts affecting the captains of industry because, after all, that's how the captains of industry posts affect me. Which brings me back to the scene.

As the US and Soviet warships sailed inexorably closer to each other during the final hours of the Cuban Missile Crisis, Robert McNamara is shown at the Pentagon evaluating a giant map of the globe. One of his aides asks if he should interpret the data for the President, and McNamara responds with a revelation that the world has changed and that, because of technological advances, the middle men had been removed from the equation. In this new era, real time telemetry was, in essence, a means with which Kennedy and Khrushchev could engage in dialogue.

As I feverishly wrote the proper spin for my corporate strategy, I could imagine corporate titans across the globe analyzing my posts, laboring over nuance and looking for weakness.

But after my revelry, it occurred to me that world leaders are in the business of communication too. Remember all the CNN stories about world leaders communicating with each other via CNN stories? Of course, CNN had been on the air for quite a while, but these were the stories that legitimized it.

Perhaps President Roosevelt's Fireside Chats was the final step for legitimizing radio. The famous Kennedy/Nixon debate was the final step for legitimizing television. The question:

Would an honest to goodness presidential blog, written by the president himself, be the final legitimization of blogs? Aside from the fact that the first presidential blogger would immediately rocket up the technorati ranking, what better way for the president to communicate more directly with the people, and indeed with the world?

I can almost imagine the first presidential bloggers first post:

"My friends, I'd like to talk about the Middle East today..."

While I doubt the comments section would be of much use, just imagine the possibility that, one day, a few day-to-day thoughts could be posted by the president and read by the people.