The NY Times reports this morning that President-Elect Obama will likely be forced to give up his BlackBerry, which he relies on for both voice and e-mail communications. They note that he hopes to at least have a laptop on his desk, becoming the first President to have a computer in the oval office though his staff prepares clippings for him so he doesn't spend his day reading news sites and blogs. It's simply unimaginable what it would be like to work without a computer in today's day and age, especially when one is shielded from being able to use the Internet to seek out their own sources of information. We wonder why our political leaders are so isolated from the "real world" and here we are denying the leader of the free world access to the most important tool for unfiltered information gathering of this age. Hopefully President Obama will be able to find a way to stay connected in cyber-space despite the concerns over FOIA and potential subpeonas.