Maybe Politicians Aren’t As Dumb As They Look

From the “future is now” category:

The Schwarzenegger administration is the first California gubernatorial administration to adopt the BlackBerry on a wholesale scale.  80 people on Ah-nold’s team carry BlackBerrys wherever they go, including assistant press secretary Julie “Thumbs” Soderlund.

The interesting thing is the reason why the Blackberrys are so useful–they allow the administration to gather, broadcase, and respond to events in real-time–given the Governator a critical edge in speed.  The example in the article shows Team Schwarzenegger instantly responding to an assertion by the Democratic Assembly leader in near real-time, allowing them to get their sound bite into the same evening news segment.

It’s not about the technology, it’s about speed.