Mac-loving Obamites

From the Washington Post:

One member of the White House new-media team came to work on Tuesday, right after the swearing-in ceremony, only to discover that it was impossible to know which programs could be updated, or even which computers could be used for which purposes. The team members, accustomed to working on Macintoshes, found computers outfitted with six-year-old versions of Microsoft software. Laptops were scarce, assigned to only a few people in the West Wing. The team was left struggling to put closed captions on online videos.

I suppose this preference for MacBooks should be no surprise, given that Al Gore is a director of Apple Inc.

At the same time, the Post saw the same gaps in the new website that I saw trying to quote the President’s speech:

By late evening, the vaunted new White House Web site did not offer any updated posts about President Obama's busy first day on the job, which included an inaugural prayer service, an open house with the public, and meetings with his economic and national security teams.

Nor did the site reflect the transparency Obama promised to deliver. "The President has not yet issued any executive orders," it stated hours after Obama issued executive orders to tighten ethics rules, enhance Freedom of Information Act rules and freeze the salaries of White House officials who earn more than $100,000.

The site was updated for the first time last night, when information on the executive orders was added. But there were still no pool reports or blog entries.

To tell you the truth, it’s not surprising that it would be hard to switch everything over a few minutes after assuming office. (Sure it can be done but there’s a lot of things that can and apparently did go wrong.)

A less ambitious goal would have been more realistic. As with other things, the new Administration has raised expectations of superhuman perfection, which probably won’t last more than a few months.

Hat tip: Matt Asay, “The Open Road”