June 17th, 2009
Clinton defends State-Twitter connection, even as she pleads ignorance
In his wonderful book The Invention of Air, about the English scientist Charles Priestley, Steven Johnson talks about how Mike Huckabee was asked a question about global warming (as I recall) and his answer was, “It’s funny you would ask that. I’m running for President not high school science teacher.”
Johnson’s point was that science is actually quite central to the concerns of political leaders and what’s really funny is that a major candidate would take the position that science is purely the domain of lab-coated eggheads.
The point is no less true for technology, and the Obama Administration is supposed to be this geekocracy, with the nation’s first CTO and CIO. Enter Hillary Clinton, either playing dumb or failing to realize that technology and policy are truly intertwined.
Defending the State Department’s entreaty to Twitter not to shut down for maintenance while the Iranian protests are in full swing (biggest protest yet scheduled for tomorrow), Clinton said:
“I wouldn’t know a Twitter from a tweeter, but apparently, it is very important.”
For God’s sake, when are politicians going to stop acting like ignorance is some sign of gravitas?
Clinton said she considered it important to keep “that line of communication open and enabling people to share information, particularly at a time when there [were] not many other sources of information. . . . It is a fundamental right for people to be able to communicate.”
Whatever this Web thing is.
