I have never seen Bush use a cell phone.

[LiberalFighter]

Will Obama continue using a cell phone or will that option be reduced for security reasons?

[GarbagemanLB]

1. I would imagine he won't use one for security reasons.

I have no idea what I'm talking about.

[SoonerPride]

2. Why, is someone gonna make it explode remotely? Or is it about the cancer they cause?

Do tell.

[GarbagemanLB]

3. I meant people somehow intercepting/listening in on his conversations.

[Thegonagle]

23. It's very difficult to intercept modern digital cell phone signals over the air.

Not that it can't still be done, but long gone are the days when a Radio Shack scanner (or an old TV with a fine-tuning knob, on channels 70-83, as childhood fascination would have it) could pick up every cell phone call within 2 miles.

I think it's easier to tap a land line these days, and in fact, it would probably be easier to tap a cell phone from the land line section of the phone network than from the air. From what I understand, CDMA cell phone signals (used by Verizon, Sprint PCS, and many of the regionals) are next to impossible to crack over the air, and GSM signals (used by T-Mobile, AT&T, and others) are also exceedingly difficult to crack. Either way, the privacy concerns of old no longer apply to modern cell phones--I'm confident they're just as secure as an ordinary land line--if not more so.

I see no need for him to discontinue using his cell phone, except for the most sensitive conversations, where I would expect him to use a known-to-be-secure land line, just like any world leader.

[MJkcj]

4. maybe its harder to keep a cell phone line "secure" meaning

the cell phone calls may not be private thus a security concern.... just guess dont really know

[Occam Bandage]

15. Well, not everything that the President does needs be utterly secure,

not to say that encrypted wireless communication devices don't already exist.

[Dappleganger]

5. At least there are no brain cells to destroy.

[Ozma]

7. You must be talking about Sarah Palin's cell phone. n/t

[Name removed]

16. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[Ozma]

6. Well, of course one can determine location when someone

is on a cell phone. That's the major risk. But Obama could use them when everyone knows where he is, like in the White House, but I think they have a few hundred land line phones there already! All those phones are scrambled for security, I assume one could do the same with a cell phone.

[beachmom]

8. Bush HATED cell phones, and was very strict about them being off

during meetings. No idea on security, but Obama is just going to be more of a tech guy than either Clinton or Bush.

[LiberalFighter]

12. Being techy during the Clinton administration hadn't reached that point yet.

We were just barely out of the DOS age in computers when he was elected. Windows was just a baby.

[beachmom]

17. Um, I disagree. I had e-mail at that point. Clinton had e-mail,

but never used it. Al Gore was the techie guy. Clinton this year referred to a You Tube as a "film".

[soothsayer]

9. Jack Bauer is ALWAYS on his cell phone, so they MUST be secure

[onehandle]

10. Bush doesn't use cell phones or computers for good reason.

It's called covering your tracks.

[MurrayDelph]

11. I thought it was more along the lines of

walking and chewing gum.

[WinkyDink]

13. Why should you see the POTUS using one? Is he supposed to speak to world leaders on the run?

[Occam Bandage]

14. Directing staffers, getting updates from advisors, smoothing ruffled feathers...

I've seen the job of being President referred to as trying to drink from a fire hose. I imagine that there's always more to do.

[WinkyDink]

21. Because it just wasn't done properly pre-cellphones. Okay.

[rvablue]

18. Who needs a cell phone when you have a radio transmitter on your back wired into an earpiece:)

[PfcHammer]

19. Prolly, Bush stuck his cell up his butt like

that vicar did with the potato

[ThatsMyBarack]

20. Bush likes OTHER people's cell phones....

Like Sasha Cohen's!:

[PBS Poll-435]

22. Borat?

;-)