# Should the President maintain a blog? **URL:** \ **Category:** Great Debates\ **Created:** [June 30, 2004, 6:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/should-the-president-maintain-a-blog/252844 "2004-06-30T06:01:58Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 19\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Marley23](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/45deac/32.png) [@Marley23](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Marley23)\ **Post date:** [July 1, 2004, 6:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/should-the-president-maintain-a-blog/252844/21 "2004-07-01T06:25:04Z")
I don’t know about ‘should,’ but it would be a very interesting experiment. Assuming you were getting the President’s real thoughts and not just spin, of course, which would never happen. ---
**Author:** ![rjung](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/45deac/32.png) [@rjung](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/rjung)\ **Post date:** [July 1, 2004, 6:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/should-the-president-maintain-a-blog/252844/22 "2004-07-01T06:26:06Z")
A presidential blog can be just as fake and scripted as a Presidential press conference, y’know. ---
**Author:** ![LuckySevens](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/ad7895/32.png) [@LuckySevens](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LuckySevens)\ **Post date:** [July 1, 2004, 10:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/should-the-president-maintain-a-blog/252844/23 "2004-07-01T10:15:37Z")
> [@Aeschines](#): > > Dear me, a little… testy tonight? > > Let me guess–you support GWB. Well guess what? He’s a retarded chimp. Calling someone who got a Harvard Degree a chimp is insulting to people who obtained a harvard degree. You’re insulting a lot of people with your words, maybe you should cool it :dubious: ---
**Author:** ![Aeschines](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/aeschines/32/16251_2.png) [@Aeschines](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Aeschines)\ **Post date:** [July 1, 2004, 10:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/should-the-president-maintain-a-blog/252844/24 "2004-07-01T10:31:15Z")
> [@LuckySevens](#): > > Calling someone who got a Harvard Degree a chimp is insulting to people who obtained a harvard degree. > > You’re insulting a lot of people with your words, maybe you should cool it :dubious: He’s a chimp. I don’t care where he got his degree–he’s an ignorant, right-wing, retarded simian. And I’m a Purdue grad and proud of it. ---
**Author:** ![Revtim](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/revtim/32/1042_2.png) [@Revtim](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Revtim)\ **Post date:** [July 1, 2004, 12:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/should-the-president-maintain-a-blog/252844/25 "2004-07-01T12:19:00Z")
> [@rjung](#): > > A presidential blog can be just as fake and scripted as a Presidential press conference, y’know. Can be and WOULD be. How can anybody even remotely question that the blog would be as full of horseshit as any other communication medium from a politician? ---
**Author:** ![JThunder](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/e95f7d/32.png) [@JThunder](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JThunder)\ **Post date:** [July 1, 2004, 12:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/should-the-president-maintain-a-blog/252844/26 "2004-07-01T12:21:44Z")
> [@Blalron](#): > > The beauty of a blog is that it’s not filtered and edited just to prevent all nitpicking. It’s real! Not fake and scripted! First of all, as **rjung** pointed out, a blog can be every bit as faked and scripted as a Presidential speech, so there is no advantage there. Second, if the purpose of a blog is to provide access to the President’s unfiltered thoughts, then that is a dangerous and undesirable thing. We all have unfiltered thoughts that are best kept to ourselves. For most blogs, this is not a big issue, but when dealing with (a) a public official who is under intense international scrutiny, and (b) who has to deal with matters of national security and life-and-death decisions, a greater deal of caution is required. There is simply no advantage to a Presidential blog, apart from satisfying the desires of armchair micromanagers who say, “I want to know what the President is thinking! I want him to share those things with us, in their raw and unfiltered form!” That is simply no way to manage a business, much less run an entire country. **Kkrose** brought up FDR’s fireside chats. I’m sorry, but I don’t think that’s at all analogous to a public blog. FDR’s chats may have been less formal than a Presidential speech or press conference, but I’m sure that they still required considerable planning on the part of FDR and his staff. Such chats still would not provide access to the _unfiltered_ thoughts that some of you earnestly (and misguidedly) desire. ---
**Author:** ![Revtim](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/revtim/32/1042_2.png) [@Revtim](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Revtim)\ **Post date:** [August 10, 2004, 3:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/should-the-president-maintain-a-blog/252844/27 "2004-08-10T03:10:28Z")
[CIA Asks Bush To Discontinue Blog](http://www.onion.com/news/index.php?issue=4031) ---
**Author:** ![Squink](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/b5e925/32.png) [@Squink](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Squink)\ **Post date:** [August 10, 2004, 3:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/should-the-president-maintain-a-blog/252844/28 "2004-08-10T03:30:00Z")
> [@Revtim](#): > > [CIA Asks Bush To Discontinue Blog](http://www.onion.com/news/index.php?issue=4031) [http://www.whitehouse.gov/](http://www.whitehouse.gov/) can be nearly as amusing. Especially on the days when the president’s mouthpiece is taking questions: > [@](#): > > Q Let me follow up with a second question. How damaging was the revelation of the deepest mole that we’ve ever had in al Qaeda? The publication of that man’s name by The New York Times – how damaging is that to our war on terror? > > MR. McCLELLAN: I’m sorry – which specific instance are you referring to? [here](http://www.whitehouse.gov/news/releases/2004/08/20040809-5.html#khan) ---
**Author:** ![Huerta88](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/82dd89/32.png) [@Huerta88](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Huerta88)\ **Post date:** [August 10, 2004, 3:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/should-the-president-maintain-a-blog/252844/29 "2004-08-10T03:53:19Z")
> [@Bosda Di'Chi of Tricor](#): > > Why bother? > > The President [ul] > [li] **doesn’t** write his own speeches[/li][li] **doesn’t** write his own policy statements[/li][li] **doesn’t** permit outsiders into the “inner circle”[/li][li] **doesn’t** want his Hidden Agenda exposed[/li][li]and **doesn’t** really want anybody to know what goes on.[/li][/ul] > > Neither this one, nor any other. > > The blog would be written by a hired geek. You would be no more knowledgable than you are now. > > _Who knows_ what the _actual_ view, policies, opinions & beliefs of our “leaders” are? 😕 :dubious: :mad: Bingo **Bd’CoT**. Reagan apparently wrote a lot of his speeches. But then, he was older-school than anyone else in recent memory, grew up writing letters in the age before easy long distance, and knew how words on a page translated into theater. And, although I think Reagan inadvertently inaugurated the age of the photo op and spin control, I don’t think these “arts” had risen to anywhere near the level they’re at now. Along with the dominance of “message of the day” agendas driven by “communications directors” and their all-controlling staffs comes an increasing unwillingness to leave any facet of things unscripted. Clinton was, IMHO, “worse”/“better” in the spin game than anyone before him – but Bush’s team is in some ways even more controlled. I suspect that the next President, of whatever party, will be less, not more spontaneous. So what happens if the President starts speaking directly to the people? Major headaches for the increasingly-influential communications handlers. GWB could be musing in his blog on perfectly-orthodox, straight-from-the-campaign-playbook, matters of, say, charter school policy, but if this is the day that the team has chosen to highlight the message of “Making Homeownership Affordable For All Americans” or “Restoring Hope To Iraqi Schoolchildren,” it’s a most unwelcome dilution of message for the staff (and hey, those backdrop banners don’t come cheap!). We do also live in an era of subpoenas and increased sensitivity to paper trails – which would be a big problem even absent the Lewinsky thing, as the corporate scandals, etc. have highlighted the problems with people spilling their guts out in casual electronic fora (e.g., e-mail). I remember GWB bemoaning, seemingly with sincerity, the fact that he could not use e-mail, at all, as a matter of policy on advice from his lawyers/security team; apparently even as governor he used to use it to drop casual notes to family, etc., but it’s just too risky now. ---
**Author:** ![a\_daft\_girl](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/b5e925/32.png) [@a\_daft\_girl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/a_daft_girl)\ **Post date:** [August 11, 2004, 4:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/should-the-president-maintain-a-blog/252844/30 "2004-08-11T04:02:17Z")
maintain/is - what’s the difference. if he paid his speech writers to code up a super podus spell checker, to maintain said blog, i might lose all interest in everything he had to say alltogether, because without the humour of things like “Nucular” (which by the way is now being added as a legitimate extension of “Nuclear” due to the jackholes perpetual plugging of the non existant word - roll over webster, roll over), referring to the spanish language as “Mexican” or that jargon about coexisting peacefully with mi amigos fishies, he just puts me to sleep. bushisms; mix well with delirium & shake. ---
**Author:** ![Abbie\_Carmichael](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/49beb7/32.png) [@Abbie\_Carmichael](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Abbie_Carmichael)\ **Post date:** [August 11, 2004, 12:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/should-the-president-maintain-a-blog/252844/31 "2004-08-11T12:21:16Z")
A President (or Prime Minister, etc.) can either do his/her job, or entertain the people reality TV style. ---
**Author:** ![Tyrrell\_McAllister](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tyrrell_mcallister/32/16772_2.png) [@Tyrrell\_McAllister](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tyrrell_McAllister)\ **Post date:** [January 6, 2017, 7:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/should-the-president-maintain-a-blog/252844/32 "2017-01-06T19:09:34Z")
Resurrected for nostalgia. ETA: Especially, > [@Tyrrell\_McAllister](#): > > But if we got to read his own expressions of his own thoughts on a daily basis, we might be more inclined to think of him as just another human being. It might make him harder to demonize in the way that recent presidents have been demonized by their oppositions. and > [@JThunder](#): > > People’s private thoughts – including those of highly intelligent people – often go through an iterative process of refinement and modification. Having the President record his own private musings in that manner is simply asking for trouble. That is why even the best Presidential speeches are subject to proofreading, editing and extensive review. You just know that there will be thousands of wonks out there who will nitpick each detail to death, often inserting interpretations that may or may not be warranted. > > For this reason, a public blog would be a horribly inefficient use of the Chief Executive’s time. If he wants people to know what he’s thinking, there are better avenues for communicating this – press releases, press conferences and public speeches, for example. Having him jot down his own musings, for the explicit purpose of public scrutiny, is nothing but a disaster waiting to happen. ---
**Author:** ![Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/e8c25b/32.png) [@Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Really_Not_All_That_Bright)\ **Post date:** [January 6, 2017, 7:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/should-the-president-maintain-a-blog/252844/33 "2017-01-06T19:46:33Z")
When I first saw the thread title I was sure it was going to be about the President-Elect (since he has substituted tweets for press conferences). ---
**Author:** ![XT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/xt/32/456_2.png) [@XT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/XT)\ **Post date:** [January 6, 2017, 7:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/should-the-president-maintain-a-blog/252844/34 "2017-01-06T19:53:48Z")
> [@Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](#): > > When I first saw the thread title I was sure it was going to be about the President-Elect (since he has substituted tweets for press conferences). Same here. It was a bad idea back then, and a worst idea now. Probably why Trump wants to do it. (Bit surprising how lax GD used to be in the bad old days of 2004 though…there would have been warnings and maybe a banning or two if that happened today :p) ---
**Author:** ![Trinopus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/2bfe46/32.png) [@Trinopus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Trinopus)\ **Post date:** [January 6, 2017, 9:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/should-the-president-maintain-a-blog/252844/35 "2017-01-06T21:17:02Z")
I can see some real value of having a staffer do this for him. Some aide to the press secretary could keep it up. It would be a place to link to the full text of treaty proposals, legislative proposals, etc., and a good place to go into more detail on official positions. Instead of, “I support the people of Macadamia in their struggle for freedom,” it could have extensive text about the Macadamian opposition, the history of their claims, a rebuttal from the Macadamian government, and so on. And, yeah, windows dumbing things down for the casual reader, too. More than a blog: a whole web site, with lots of resources, maintained daily. (Is there already such a thing?) ---
**Author:** ![XT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/xt/32/456_2.png) [@XT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/XT)\ **Post date:** [January 6, 2017, 9:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/should-the-president-maintain-a-blog/252844/36 "2017-01-06T21:19:10Z")
> [@Trinopus](#): > > I can see some real value of having a staffer do this for him. Some aide to the press secretary could keep it up. It would be a place to link to the full text of treaty proposals, legislative proposals, etc., and a good place to go into more detail on official positions. > > Instead of, “I support the people of Macadamia in their struggle for freedom,” it could have extensive text about the Macadamian opposition, the history of their claims, a rebuttal from the Macadamian government, and so on. And, yeah, windows dumbing things down for the casual reader, too. > > More than a blog: a whole web site, with lots of resources, maintained daily. > > (Is there already such a thing?) The White House does indeed have a web site already that does much of what you are saying ([whitehouse.gov](http://whitehouse.gov) IIRC). ---
**Author:** ![Buck\_Godot](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/buck_godot/32/6573_2.png) [@Buck\_Godot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Buck_Godot)\ **Post date:** [January 6, 2017, 11:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/should-the-president-maintain-a-blog/252844/37 "2017-01-06T23:00:33Z")
If it were done well I could see it working. Think of it as a modern equivalent of FDR’s fireside chat. Note that Trump’s tweets are an example of it being very poorly. ---
**Author:** ![Trinopus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/2bfe46/32.png) [@Trinopus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Trinopus)\ **Post date:** [January 7, 2017, 1:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/should-the-president-maintain-a-blog/252844/38 "2017-01-07T01:53:06Z")
> [@XT](#): > > The White House does indeed have a web site already that does much of what you are saying ([whitehouse.gov](http://whitehouse.gov) IIRC). Oh. Well…yay! (As the nice lady used to say, “Never mind!”) (Just went and looked: pretty nice! Not quite as detailed as I was envisioning, but much more detailed than just a blog. Good design.) ---
**Author:** ![Kimstu](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/ecd19e/32.png) [@Kimstu](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kimstu)\ **Post date:** [January 7, 2017, 2:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/should-the-president-maintain-a-blog/252844/39 "2017-01-07T02:26:30Z")
There are also Presidential Twitter accounts: [President Obama ‏@POTUS](https://twitter.com/potus) and [Barack Obama @BarackObama](https://twitter.com/barackobama) However, I’m sure neither of those is just unfiltered samples of Obama’s personal thoughts; they are official Administration communications media, and IMHO that’s how they ought to be treated. I don’t want to see President Obama’s random braindribbles any more than I want to see President Trump’s. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/should-the-president-maintain-a-blog/252844.md?page=1)