Most techno-savvy White House evah can’t figure out e-mail
posted at 11:30 am on January 27, 2009 by Ed Morrissey
The excuse? Antiquated equipment used by the Bush administration is so low-tech they can’t understand it. No, really:
It’s more than five hours and counting now since the entire White House e-mail system went down.
Press Secretary Robert Gibbs announced the technical snafu at his 1:30 p.m. briefing, apologizing to the media for the e-mail silence this afternoon.
The result is maddening for the new White House team, which already has been frustrated with the archaic communications gear they discovered when they arrived at their offices. …
Both outgoing and incoming mail are out, the result, an aide explained, of an outage with the Outlook server. The aide said the outage goes beyond the press shop. The first lady’s office is also without e-mail, as are other offices.
Outlook isn’t exactly “archaic”. Many organizations use Outlook to handle e-mail, scheduling, and other tasks. It’s not my favorite program, but it works, especially for large organizations. Or at least large organizations that know what they’re doing.
This follows on the heels of their inability to get the voice-mail system to re-open the White House Comment Line. Bush staffers got the blame for that, too. Last week, they were bitching to the Washington Post about having to use PCs instead of Macs:
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.
Six-year-old Microsoft software? In other words, they didn’t upgrade from XP to Vista, a wise choice under the circumstances. Not only did it save the White House some money, it probably saved them untold headaches, too. Maybe someone on the Obama transition team should have checked the platform and started advising people to brush up on their PC skills.
Team Obama has been in office a week. At what point will they stop blaming Bush for their troubles and take some responsibility for themselves? 2012? After all, the supposed technological Neanderthals of the Bush White House managed to keep the Outlook servers and XP computers in operation until January 20th. (via David Knowles at AOL Political Machine)
Update: As several commenters have pointed out, there are no Outlook servers. Outlook uses Exchange servers. That may have been a mistake by the Post rather than the White House, though. Since the reporting doesn’t use verbatim quotes, it’s impossible to determine.
Update II: So now we have a Treasury Secretary who can’t figure out his own taxes and a White House that can’t deal with e-mail. So much for competence.
Blowback
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Smart power! Yeehaw!
javamartini on January 27, 2009 at 11:32 AM
Not only that, but for such a “Tech savvy” group they should know that the frikkin’ name of the server is “Exchange server” not “Outlook server.”
crazy_legs on January 27, 2009 at 11:34 AM
Seriously? This is not an Onion article?
HawaiiLwyr on January 27, 2009 at 11:34 AM
Every large company that I know of uses PCs with the Microsoft Office suite and Outlook email.
Illinidiva on January 27, 2009 at 11:35 AM
Obligatory.
lorien1973 on January 27, 2009 at 11:35 AM
They will never stop blaming Bush. It’s the mindset of America these days. It’s always someone else’s fault.
Brat4life on January 27, 2009 at 11:35 AM
LOL Obama’s staff is so lame.
John McCain wouldn’t have had these e-mail problems. He’s old enough to know to call a technician to fix it instead of cursing the wind.
BKennedy on January 27, 2009 at 11:35 AM
Sad. See how we have lost our ‘pioneer’ skills?
If you can work on new stuff, you should still be able to work on old stuff.
Use your Common Sense.
Badger40 on January 27, 2009 at 11:35 AM
I said this in the last thread (or headline) about this… I thought they were tech savvy? Being tech savvy means being able to work with a multitude of technologies, whether they are brand new or if they are older.
Being a computer scientist and a mobile video engineer, I need to know a wide variety of technologies.
MobileVideoEngineer on January 27, 2009 at 11:35 AM
Maybe they’re all trying to type on the keyboards using only their thumbs…. BarackBerry-style
strosfan on January 27, 2009 at 11:35 AM
I thought his special, Batman Blackberry would handle all the IT?
Hening on January 27, 2009 at 11:36 AM
Where are those “transparent” press briefings. Oh, they haven’t released ONE yet? Frauds.
marklmail on January 27, 2009 at 11:36 AM
So – how many new top-of-the-line Macs do we get to pay for now?
Ugly on January 27, 2009 at 11:37 AM
I understand China has similar “outages” from time to time.
Ronnie on January 27, 2009 at 11:37 AM
Windows ……Its Boooshs Fault
William Amos on January 27, 2009 at 11:37 AM
How hard could it be to be PREPARED with the right IT people for the transition ?
Ok , it’s Bush’s fault , we get it.
the_nile on January 27, 2009 at 11:37 AM
There’s no such thing as an Outlook server. It’s Microsoft Exchange and I guess you could call Exchange 2003 6 years old but the latest upgrade Exchange 2007 hasn’t actually been out that long. For something as important as the White House I would definitely have waited for twelve months or so on an upgrade.
I don’t know how the IT staff works in the White House. If they come and go with each administration then I wouldn’t have even considered upgrading knowing I’d be gone at the end of 2008.
That said I like Exchange 2007 a lot more than 2003. All versions of Exchange can be tricky to administrate. Being tossed into it like this and with as high a volume of email the White House most likely deals with I can see where a problem would arise.
bj1126 on January 27, 2009 at 11:38 AM
LOL – Maybe they can call Steve Jobs and Apple DONATE Mac’s to the White House. Better yet – why don’t the staffers use their own Mac’s? I do work for large corporations and PC’s are the rule. And most are on XP and most are not able to install software for security reasons. Sounds like the Obamanation is not as techno savvy as they seem to be?
izoneguy on January 27, 2009 at 11:38 AM
Come on! They couldn’t Bamaguraushelkpijdfaoijpafd (aka “Bob”) in Mumbai for a little tech support?
Dr.Cwac.Cwac on January 27, 2009 at 11:39 AM
Our Exchange expert may have a new job…..
roux on January 27, 2009 at 11:39 AM
Doesn’t the White House have computer help staff? Didn’t the Obama people do any preparation work before the move? Do some overlap?
Phoenician on January 27, 2009 at 11:39 AM
I think the “six year old” Microsoft software they’re referring to is Office 2003. As in the Office suite that 96.8% of corporate America is using.
Windows XP was released in 2001. It’s 8 years old! Oh noes!
strictnein on January 27, 2009 at 11:39 AM
FAIL!
The Race Card on January 27, 2009 at 11:40 AM
Typical Mac users.
outOfElement on January 27, 2009 at 11:40 AM
There was nobody assigned to IT on the transition team?
Who does Michelle need to send e-mail to, anyway? Her mother is right there with her in the White House.
BigD on January 27, 2009 at 11:40 AM
http://www.theonion.com/content/video/apple_introduces_revolutionary
MacBook wheel..
the_nile on January 27, 2009 at 11:41 AM
Maybe the Obama Administration should upgrade from MS Outlook to carrier pigeons. They could understand the technology better, and the birdshit would go unnoticed among the bullshit.
Cicero43 on January 27, 2009 at 11:41 AM
Well, on that point, I must sympathize. Once you use Mac, you don’t go back.
paul006 on January 27, 2009 at 11:41 AM
There is no such thing as an “outlook server.” Microsoft’s mail server is called “Exchange Server.” Outlook is a Microsoft client application that will connect to a wide variety of mail servers.
ralph steadman on January 27, 2009 at 11:41 AM
#1. XP works but doesn’t rock. Trust me, I still use it.
#2. President Obama needs to upgrade the White House as part of economic stimuli. Start with backup servers and archival backups for public records requests under FOIA. Also make the White House wireless and have Mac compatability – Macs have BootCamp, or so I hear.
HotAirJosef on January 27, 2009 at 11:42 AM
No worries, I’m sure a well paid bureaucracy will be set-up shortly to oversee the conversion to Macs.
sublime on January 27, 2009 at 11:42 AM
I bet that not one keyboard has had a “O” removed.
Remember 2001 and the missing “W” keys?
dentalque on January 27, 2009 at 11:42 AM
Got to say, I’ve found nothing beneficial about getting Vista.
But of course most of them are Mac users. I mean isn’t that their target demographic?
Esthier on January 27, 2009 at 11:42 AM
There’s your problem
Vashta.Nerada on January 27, 2009 at 11:43 AM
ha ha ha Booosh so stupid!!!1!! can’t use emails!!! He’s OLD.
Oh wait, Obama broke it?
Nevermind.
Dead Hand Control on January 27, 2009 at 11:43 AM
I worked with both Macs and PCs in college. I prided myself in knowing how to function with each, and even complete projects using both. I preferred the PC, and therefore was never seen as the “cool kid” by my professors.
I guess my pants weren’t tight enough, my t-shirt not metro enough, and I didn’t have enough accessories on (I didn’t know I needed two belts on!).
regardless, I still made the grade and adapted when I had to.
Maybe when I get laid off, I can have a position in the Obama White House. I can be the PC Liaison or something.
conservativejack on January 27, 2009 at 11:45 AM
Oh and Apple doesn’t sync all that great with Exchange. The morons probably think that they don’t have to worry about security.
Question: When will congress and the press demand to look at missing emails?
roux on January 27, 2009 at 11:45 AM
Even funnier when you consider that after all the lawsuits following the 2000 election, Bush had the shortest transition time in modern history, and kept it all together.
Vashta.Nerada on January 27, 2009 at 11:45 AM
Duh!! Bernadine Dohrn. Helloooooo. Sheesh.
IrishEi on January 27, 2009 at 11:46 AM
Our government needs to save the taxpayers some coin (like that will ever happen) and switch to Linux and Open Office.
It looks like the transition team didn’t vet the IT guy. Good grief.
robblefarian on January 27, 2009 at 11:46 AM
The U.S. Government hasn’t approved the use of Vista or 2008-based platforms for secure, or unsecure networks yet. There is NO (please read that again) NO Crapple software or hardware approved for Official government use, as it has security loopholes out the wazoo (more than any MS OS, and patching isn’t even close to the speed at which MS patches their security holes).
Obama should have known this, you know, since him and his buddy Teddy seem to be so hip with their support for Net (un)Neutrality, and their “oh so important” Crackberry fetish.
Obama and his crony staff are typical Mac people. All they know how to do is point, click, and make queer “mashups” of ODB rapping over the movie “W”. But hey, they’re experts at Safari!
Five bucks says they crashed the Exch. SVR by not expanding the maximum size of the information store. Dumbasses.
leetpriest on January 27, 2009 at 11:46 AM
The deal is, Mac user are typically at the bottom of the barrel technologically.
Macs are like automatic cameras, sure you can take a picture but you learn nothing about photography.
Macs have a big appeal to Libs. I guess it is so because they are not the thinking type.
The Mac community like to think that Apple represents the anti-capitalist, progressive, artsy ideology but actually, Apple is the most brutal dictator when it comes to there products.
Steve Jobs has them so snowed.
TheSitRep on January 27, 2009 at 11:47 AM
Press Secretary Robert Gibbs announced the technical snafu at his 1:30 p.m. briefing, apologizing to the media for the e-mail silence this afternoon.
Maybe if you and your boss went and…oh I don’t know…TALKED to the press, this wouldn’t be such a big concern.
No, can’t do that, the reporters might start asking questions.
Bishop on January 27, 2009 at 11:47 AM
Vista is alright. I myself have XP, but my wife has Vista and I really have no problem with either one. The only problem with Vista in the beginning is that a lot of 3rd party software wasn’t ready for Vista right away, but that wasn’t Microsoft’s fault, that was the fault of the 3rd party developers.
However, that being said, it’s not a big deal that they are still on XP. Heck with something like the White House, they probably would have been better off to stick with Windows 2000. If you get a blue screen of death on Windows 2000 you know that you pretty much screwed the computer up big time. Windows 2000 has got to be the best Microsoft operating system by far.
MobileVideoEngineer on January 27, 2009 at 11:47 AM
This is what happens when myth collides with reality.
stonemeister on January 27, 2009 at 11:48 AM
That is a very telling statement, when you apply it more universally than to just computers.
Vashta.Nerada on January 27, 2009 at 11:48 AM
The GAO is the reason why you can’t use macs in a government office, it wasn’t Bush’s decision. Also, Bush got raked over the coals by techno-nerds because he wasn’t using the same email system Clinton was because the White House wasn’t archiving messages (articles still on arstechnica), so they switched to placate those howls from the left (who thought Bush/Cheaney were up to no good trying to hide the people’s right to see what they were emailing about).
Obama better get this under control quick.
smfoushee on January 27, 2009 at 11:48 AM
I work for a leading edge financial services giant (and NOT one you’re reading about in the news these days).
Our offices operate in a pc environment with “nine-year old” Microssoft operating systems. We use Outlook for our email and calendars, etc., and we get along just fine.
Someone tell these skinny litte beta males and their skanky female colleagues to STFU and get to work.
D2Boston on January 27, 2009 at 11:49 AM
Probably not. Being Mac users, Obama and his crony IT staff are more than likely under the misinformed Mac user ideology of “It just works”
leetpriest on January 27, 2009 at 11:49 AM
FIFY.
“OMG – these mice have TWO buttons! I’m not sure what to do!”
Darbraun on January 27, 2009 at 11:49 AM
And so begins the ignorant PC-Mac flame wars.
smfoushee on January 27, 2009 at 11:49 AM
This won’t help Michelle’s children.
Dr.Cwac.Cwac on January 27, 2009 at 11:49 AM
Ha! Outlook/Exchange is “archaic”? NASA just switched over to using it within the past few months. Is NASA …what, hyper-archaic, then?
commenter on January 27, 2009 at 11:50 AM
The Mac community like to think that Apple represents the anti-capitalist, progressive, artsy ideology
But it does, no really. The Apple™ emblem on the monitor means you are green-aware and also means the juice to power the computer comes from free range solar collectors.
Bishop on January 27, 2009 at 11:50 AM
I have always said a Mac is like a computer with training wheels. Enough said, my point is proven.
gator70 on January 27, 2009 at 11:50 AM
The proof is in the antitrust lawsuit pudding.
leetpriest on January 27, 2009 at 11:50 AM
I feel you didn’t go far enough. Add a helmet and a harness.
leetpriest on January 27, 2009 at 11:51 AM
This is lame. They have the White House Communications Agency and the NSA at their disposal. I’m sure they can figure it out.
CP on January 27, 2009 at 11:51 AM
Macs are great for people who want to have the exact same computer as every other Mac user.
PCs are customizable – memory, HD, etc. What you see in a Mac is what you get.
People complain that PCs crash all the time. What’s amazing is that they don’t crash more. Windows has to function perfectly with millions of drivers from millions of different vendors each coded in their own unique/”special” ways.
Mac only has to work with 1 driver set.
lorien1973 on January 27, 2009 at 11:53 AM
Explains the CIA, though.
lorien1973 on January 27, 2009 at 11:53 AM
Exchange is not archaic. It’s the defacto standard of the corporate world. My “archaic” iPhone can sync with it fine as do blackberries.
Not going to Vista shows how tech-savvy the White House really was.
There’s not even a real Apple alternative here for a mail server. The only other choice is a Mac or Linux box running Sendmail or some alternative.
Not suprising that Obama’s team doesn’t understand Windows though. These are the same people that think designing your own web page makes you a “programmer”.
Skywise on January 27, 2009 at 11:53 AM
Oh for cryin’ out loud, you morons…if you can use a Mac you can use a PC. I daily use both and nobody taught me how to do it.
Sheesh.
Bob's Kid on January 27, 2009 at 11:53 AM
But wait a second. The administration and staff have changed but the worker-bees that keep the systems running are still the same. Not everyone leaves just because there’s a new president.
I smell a techno-rat in this story.
johnsteele on January 27, 2009 at 11:54 AM
The White House IT staff should handle the servers (as others have pointed out “Exchange” not “Outlook” for mail) and Obama’s team should just have to plug in to access resources based on their entitlements. If the Windows servers are running Active Directory it would make things cleaner.
Macs shouldn’t be a problem on the network. Entourage isn’t a great app but it does support Exchange.
dedalus on January 27, 2009 at 11:54 AM
why is the white house only publishing press briefing ‘highlights’?! Where are the questions?
Phoenician on January 27, 2009 at 11:54 AM
Wait–Pres. Obama brought in his own IT team? I thought that techies were Civil Servants and covered under the various union groups. No?
That said, in the Corporate World, the rule is you only get to blame the previous guy (or gal) for six months. After that you own the problem. My guess is the Obama Administration will be blaming Bush for the next 4 years if need be.
March Hare on January 27, 2009 at 11:55 AM
Microsoft is the preferred platform for the US Government, in all forms–from federal to local.
Good luck trying to change that.
Enoxo on January 27, 2009 at 11:55 AM
I think the CIA is really behind it. I mean the less this administration communicates with their friends the less is leaked directly to our enemies.
- The Cat
MirCat on January 27, 2009 at 11:56 AM
The government that can’t figure out email thinks it can fix the economy?
lorien1973 on January 27, 2009 at 11:56 AM
Heh. I do tech support and this is SO true.
Missy on January 27, 2009 at 11:57 AM
Clearly they have no idea what they’re doing. There’s no such thing as an “Outlook Server.” Let’s just assume they mean “Exchange Server” and have no idea how to fix it. FAIL.
Beo on January 27, 2009 at 11:57 AM
So does this mean that the Pres and V-pres didnt get my e-mail concerning the government spending he is trying to shove through?
damn..
becki51758 on January 27, 2009 at 11:57 AM
Just pulled that one out of the air, eh?
Ronnie on January 27, 2009 at 11:57 AM
Surely there’s some virus writer or phishing e-mail mastermind out there that they could hire to head the White House IT staff, a la Tim Geithner.
So, does this explain why all the agencies are getting IT upgrades in the stimulus package? B.O. thinks all the agencies should run on Macs?
hawksruleva on January 27, 2009 at 11:58 AM
This is just one of many, many, MANY examples of what we can look forward to over the next year or so. Most of Obama’s cronies have never worked for a business where… like… uh, actual productivity is expected and you make due with the resources you have. Well, I guess it’s unfair to criticize them, as their freaking boss has never run anything either.
They “expect” things will work out just because they wish it. They don’t prepare for problem scenarios. Then, they whine and blame someone else. Hope and Change, baby.
Sugar Land on January 27, 2009 at 11:59 AM
Maybe PrexBo can upgrade their computer systems and call it Stimulus. It’s only money.
bopbottle on January 27, 2009 at 11:59 AM
P.S. ON a serious note. How many in the White House are now Cisco Certified? Yeah funny and scary huh?
MirCat on January 27, 2009 at 11:59 AM
BOOOOOSH lied, computers died!
joeswampy on January 27, 2009 at 11:59 AM
If they need to find any important documents…look at Sandy Berger’s socks.
Funny how a “team” can run a White House for 8 years without a glitch…and all of a sudden everything is “outdated”.
I smell an emergency measure to “upgrade” the White House with the new programs:
Obamalook
Word for Obama
Hope & Change (instead of excel)
All packaged in the new “Obama Suhweet”…
and of course, a new White House web page where linked to the Obamanation website and donor site….of course.
right2bright on January 27, 2009 at 12:00 PM
Oh, I dunno ’bout that…I had a lot of choices when I ordered my Mac.
I maxed it out, of course. :)
Bob's Kid on January 27, 2009 at 12:01 PM
If the White House had been on Macs when Bush came into office they would have had to have gone through two major format changes — OS 9 to OS 10 and then from the Motorola-based chips to the new Intel Macs. That’s two levels of potential incompatibility issues that the computers didn’t have to deal with during the upgrade from Win 98/2000 to XP, and the avoidance of upgrading from XP to Vista.
If the folks now in charge are hell-bent on switching over to Macs, hopefully the latest Intel/Leopard combo will be maintained for a while or at least near-future versions will have better backwards compatibility functions (though given the spending of this White House, I don’t think they’d have any problem tossing out their old Macs and OS X software for new ones a couple of years down the line if 10.8 hates 10.5 as much as 10.5 dislikes 10.2).
jon1979 on January 27, 2009 at 12:01 PM
The real WTF is that they’re using Windows….
LimeyGeek on January 27, 2009 at 12:01 PM
Me too! Those people are sniveling whiners that are just looking for chances to bash Bush. Or maybe they want a piece of the bailout action to convert from PC to MAC. Or maybe they should just outsource IT to India.
Brat on January 27, 2009 at 12:01 PM
Macs, like gas grills, are for sissies.
-Dave
Dave R. on January 27, 2009 at 12:01 PM
Will this make Obama our……MacDaddy?
right2bright on January 27, 2009 at 12:02 PM
If there are any, they probably braindumped their way through it.
leetpriest on January 27, 2009 at 12:02 PM
The best comment comes at the end “It is not sure how well the MacBook Wheel will go over with business people who actually have to work instead of just di*king around.”
HawaiiLwyr on January 27, 2009 at 12:03 PM
First the phone system, now email? Wow.
I’m guessing that W. is able to get his email this week.
Just kicking back with my popcorn and watching this fiasco unfold…..
JeffinOrlando on January 27, 2009 at 12:03 PM
As others have said — I’m going to blame it on the Macs. :)
Seriously though, they seem to be taking a tone of blame Bush and where not applicable blame Microsoft. The irony in them ripping MS products is their new website is programmed in Microsoft’s .NET
dengar007 on January 27, 2009 at 12:03 PM
pine baby pine
gatorboy on January 27, 2009 at 12:03 PM
Vista Sucks
Kevin43 on January 27, 2009 at 12:04 PM
Have these nitwits complained yet about the supply of toilet paper that Bush’s administration left behind?
Seriously, aren’t these tech requirements that Obama’s transition team should have ironed out weeks ago? I would have expected them to assess what was available and then make changes, upgrades, whatever, as need be.
BuckeyeSam on January 27, 2009 at 12:04 PM
This is not the e-mail client I thought I knew!
wccawa on January 27, 2009 at 12:06 PM
Yep. Almost as bad as OSX.
leetpriest on January 27, 2009 at 12:07 PM
Over the week end I stumbled into a product called GraffitiCMS which runs on/under Windows. I wanted to replace an application running on old hardware, and old code (LAMP servers). I struggled with Graffiti all week end trying to get it to run on Vista.
Finally when I did exactly what the vendor said to do, in exactly the way the vendor said to do it, it worked perfectly.
Thinking you are the smartest people in the room is the first sign of impending disaster.
Skandia Recluse on January 27, 2009 at 12:08 PM
Awwww…poor, poor Michelle. How is she gonna log onto FaceBook and MySpace and holla at her peep?
dinkyjackson on January 27, 2009 at 12:08 PM
What a bunch of BS. No such thing as an outlook server. Outlook is a client. The White House has its own IT staff. They were probably trying to install some security hack to work w/ someones blackberry and crashed their own system. SOP: problem? blame something/someone else.
Over30 on January 27, 2009 at 12:08 PM
LOL I’m stealing that. :)
LimeyGeek on January 27, 2009 at 12:09 PM
These are the kind of people whose main misery after a huge disaster will be starvation due to lack of fresh arugula and an inability to use a can opener.
What a bunch of morons!
califcon on January 27, 2009 at 12:09 PM
Use XP, and Outlook for my work, never ever had a problem with security , or any other issues, except the time some guy decided to take out the telephone pole, across the street where the main server was located. I guess with the Obummer administration the Buck Stops at Bush’s Desk.
MDWNJ on January 27, 2009 at 12:09 PM
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