Obama's change gets its new .gov web site

THE NEW President Elect across the pond, Barack Obama ran his campaign with the "Change we can believe in" slogan. Now that change has got its own brand new .gov site.

Dubbed the "The Official Web Site of the The U.S. Presidential Transition", the site aims to inform the local populace about the plans of the soon-to-be POTUS and asks citizens for input. The speed at which the site has been put on-line clearly speaks volumes about the Obama team's use of "modern" technology - computers, we mean- specially compared to its adversaries whose candidate made campaign noise by admitting he isn't that good with those kind of electrical appliances.

In a first for "crowdsourcing", the site is asking citizens for input “Tell us your story, and the issues that matter most to you. Share with us your concerns and hope," suggests one section.

On blogs and newsgroups, advocates are going bonkers and submitting very innovative names and radical change ideas, for instance some have suggested Mr. Obama appoint Creative Commons creator and lawyer Lawrence Lessig to the airwaves watchdog, the FCC. That would certainly be a radical change and we'd be surprised if those suggestions are actually read and weighted and if Mr. Lessig agrees to such hypothetical job offering. The FCC was made famous during the G.W. Bush presidency by caring about slipped nipples and trying to impose Christian morals on TV.

While Obama voters and advocates submit their radical change ideas on the site on how to best lift the world's greatest superpower from the financial abyss, the "black man awarded the World's worst job", Reagan admirer Obama has been busy moving further to the political centre, with Stephen Zunes at Alternet noting that, "less than 24 hours after the first polls closed, the president-elect chose as his chief of staff - perhaps the most powerful single position in any administration - Rahm Emanuel, one of the most conservative Democratic members of Congress."

Change.gov and the dot-gov controversy
Blogger Michelle Malkin writes that the site "smells like a fund raising front" and adds, "It's being run by Blue State Digital, the left-wing Internet fund-raising company that presided over the credit card fraud-friendly Obama campaign site."

She objects the site's .gov top-level domain name pointing out that " Government domain names (.gov) for websites are supposed to be restricted to eligible government organizations and programs." Fellow bogger Ed Morrissey says "The incoming administration technically has no status as a government organiz ation or program until January 20, 2009. The Office of the President-Elect doesn’t exist within the government."

From the Middle East, a pundit claims the president-elect that brought us Change.gov is "doomed to be the next Jimmy Carter". "In the end he will go down in history as the man who achieved two great things: making America speak with a little more honesty than his predecessor did or his opponent would have done, and teaching Americans how to save and live frugally again."

On the left, they have other things to worry about: "I'm reminded of 1992," wrote Shag at CleanDraws.com. "They were flush with the anticipation that they could turn around the Reagan revolution. Clinton flushed that for them. Now they want to get it back, to try one more time." µ

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