# Calling the President **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [October 13, 2004, 5:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/calling-the-president/268966 "2004-10-13T05:28:58Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 7\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Kozmik](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/8dc957/32.png) [@Kozmik](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kozmik)\ **Post date:** [October 13, 2004, 5:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/calling-the-president/268966/1 "2004-10-13T05:28:58Z")
May times I see photographs of the President on the telephone in the White House. I assume that the phone can take incoming calls and I should guess there is a number that dials to the phone in the Oval Office. Can one call the President of the United States as one calls a private citizen via the telephone? To put it another way, is there a number that once dialed will get the voice of George W. Bush? ---
**Author:** ![Duckster](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/duckster/32/1244_2.png) [@Duckster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Duckster)\ **Post date:** [October 13, 2004, 5:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/calling-the-president/268966/2 "2004-10-13T05:47:02Z")
The White House number - 202-456-1414 ---
**Author:** ![Bryan\_Ekers](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bryan_ekers/32/183_2.png) [@Bryan\_Ekers](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bryan_Ekers)\ **Post date:** [October 13, 2004, 6:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/calling-the-president/268966/3 "2004-10-13T06:29:56Z")
“Ah’m George Bush, and I approved this answering machine message… BEEP!” ---
**Author:** ![Dunderman](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/ecb155/32.png) [@Dunderman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dunderman)\ **Post date:** [October 13, 2004, 6:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/calling-the-president/268966/4 "2004-10-13T06:57:00Z")
> [@Kozmik](#): > > To put it another way, is there a number that once dialed will get > the voice of George W. Bush? Yeah, but you’ll have to talk to a switchboard operator first. Good luck. ---
**Author:** ![jnglmassiv](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/f07891/32.png) [@jnglmassiv](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jnglmassiv)\ **Post date:** [October 13, 2004, 7:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/calling-the-president/268966/5 "2004-10-13T07:16:09Z")
I don’t have any first hand knowledge but seems like there’d be several layers of people you’d have to talk to to get through before getting to the big cheese. I doubt even his wife and kids have a direct-direct line to the Oval Office. Imagine that number getting out. “Mr. President? Mrs. Bush is on the line.” seems about right. ---
**Author:** ![Ross](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/e274bd/32.png) [@Ross](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ross)\ **Post date:** [October 13, 2004, 10:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/calling-the-president/268966/6 "2004-10-13T10:58:05Z")
So, what, do they have to give a password or something? Do they have to be calling from a recognised phone line? Are there special govt phones that the family etc have that can get through? How much effort do they put into stopping people getting through to blow raspberries? In fact didn’t someone once get through by doing an impersonation of a high-ranking official? I seem to remember it involved Nixon. ---
**Author:** ![scott\_evil](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/91b2a8/32.png) [@scott\_evil](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/scott_evil)\ **Post date:** [October 13, 2004, 4:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/calling-the-president/268966/7 "2004-10-13T16:44:32Z")
You’re probably thinking of the (in)famous John Draper, aka “Captain Crunch,” who took his moniker after a whistle found in promotional boxes of the cereal. The 2600 Hz tone produced by the whistle allowed one to crack into the old Bell system. This led to the invention of the Blue Box, which allowed one to make free long-distance calls, the practice of which was referred to as “phreaking.” Steve Wozniak and Steve Jobs made and sold Blue Boxes before turning to the more respectable - and ultimately, extremely lucrative - endeavor of developing the Apple I and its successors. Getting back to John Draper, from [this brief article (bolding mine):](http://www.lis.uiuc.edu/~chip/projects/timeline/1972oates.html) > [@](#): > > Considered the spiritual head of the computer underground, Draper called his discovery a “revelation.” “It blew me away,” he said. Draper had explored the telephone network with his blue box, going so far as to listen in on other calls […] **He even called Richard Nixon’s private line, informing him that there was a shortage of toilet paper in southern California.** I believe there was a transcript of the conversation on Draper’s web site, now hosted on Steve Wozniak’s domain: [http://crunch.woz.org/crunch](http://crunch.woz.org/crunch). Unfortunately, the site is down at the moment.