WASHINGTON, USA: US President Barack Obama, who ran the most tech savvy election campaign, was forced into red faced admission on Monday as the email system in White house crashed.
As per media reports, the last e-mail from the White House press office was sent before the breakdown arrived on 9 a.m. Monday, advising that President Barack Obama's event on energy independence in the East Room would be open to all media, instead of just the smaller group of reporters and photographers that typically follows the president.
The malfunction left in boxes in the White House complex and across town eerily empty. Several hours later, at his briefing for the news media, press secretary Robert Gibbs apologized for being out of electronic touch.
"We'll endeavor to get you information from earlier in the day, hopefully in a little bit more of a timely manner, if we can get the email to work."
At one stage, Obama aides were forced to turn back the clock and hand out copies of memoranda signed by the president on cutting global warming, not via email as is normal, but by the dead tree method, on paper, the reports added.
It is unclear if things would be up and running by Tuesday.