The White House of Barack Obama is demonstrating its clear grasp of the twenty-first century. They understand the communication modes available to them in a way that our government has never understood to date. And they are skilled in pulling out all the stops to support their agenda.
Today at 5am (our time) Obama gave a speech in Cairo. The White House webcast the speech live for anyone who wanted to wake up and watch it. Then promptly posted it on YouTube. They also used SMS to text the speech to folks who signed up to get it via cellphone. They posted the transcript.
And it didn’t stop with the speech. Here is a complementary video that was posted on YouTube today, a video profiling some muslims working in the federal government, painting a picture of the diversity of our nation. To see this kind of quality coordinated with this sort of event is stunning.
And, may I say, a bit scary? These folks are so good at what they do, what happens when what they do no longer serves the nation’s interest? We’ll have to cross that bridge when we get there. For now I am simply in awe.