The blogosphere is reacting with what is hopefully mock outrage at the news Barack Obama uses a Microsoft Zune.

The furor broke when Neal Santos of Philadelphia’s City Paper wrote about spotting Obama at a local gym, noting “But he hopped on the machine next to me and broke a mean sweat while reading a copy of USA Today and listening to his Zune.”

That was a shock to some Apple devotees who’d seen the Obama camp as firmly on their side. The response was so harsh that Santos had to deny he’d misidentified the MP3 player, but concede “I don’t know for sure that it was his. It could belong to one of the many Secret Service dudes that were at the gym, Michelle, or even one of his daughters.”

To be fair, those who see Apple products as counter-culture and Microsoft as the dull establishment must be pretty confused to see Obama using a Zune when George W. Bush got his tunes from an iPod.

Some writers have joked that the revelations are the first betrayal of the Obama Presidency. The Guardian writes “After all, if Obama’s Apple claim is false, which other parts of his manifesto may turn out to be lies? Does the senator from Illinois hate change? Does he spurn hope? Does he play Pokémon?”

But there do seem to be a couple of possible explanations which aren’t getting much coverage. It may simply be that Obama never actually used his iPhone for music and simply fancied a change of network. After all, though he didn’t know it at the time, subscribing to Verizon didn’t work out too great.

But the most likely explanation is simply this. Barack Obama is a US Senator earning $169,300 a year. He’s about to take on a job paying $400,000 a year. He can probably afford to own and use more than one MP3 player.

Related:

Entry was posted on Friday, December 5th, 2008 at 12:34 pm under Apple, Media players, Microsoft, Politics.

Read more entries by John Lister.
Stumble It!