Before he comes to office, a president has to give up his e-mail account. For the likes of Theodore Roosevelt and Woodrow Wilson, that wasn't much of an issue, but for our recent presidents, it's an anguishing and terrible thought. As president-elect Obama parts with his BlackBerry, he'll have to learn how to deal with not being able to rag on other players in his fantasy basketball league. Jeff Zeleny's NYT story about president e-mail e-mail today also contains George W. Bush's sad 2000 shout-out to his electronic homeboys.

Three days before his first inauguration, George W. Bush sent a message to 42 friends and relatives that explained his predicament. "Since I do not want my private conversations looked at by those out to embarrass, the only course of action is not to correspond in cyberspace,” Mr. Bush wrote from his old address, G94B@aol.com. “This saddens me. I have enjoyed conversing with each of you."

So sad. Wow. Bush didn't handle this well — in fact, he was so upset that his administration decided to toss out the entire Clinton e-mail system and not replace it. As a result, National Journal recently reported, we have no records of communication at the highest levels of government over the past eight years. As for Obama, he spent time on his computer editing speeches, and was up late responding to e-mails. That won't continue, as David Axelrod suggests Obama won't even be able to use his phone in a read-only fashion. "The nature of the president’s job is that others can use e-mail for him," scholar Diana Owen says. That is so weak. Say Goodbye to BlackBerry [NYT]