Obama staffer's Clinton stunt prompts Facebook embarassment

FACEBOOK IMAGE/WASHINGTON POST

Last year, I met with a candidate seeking my counsel and who I knew was being watched closely and actively being targeted and one thing I said was "your MySpace page and Facebook page are probably being watched, make sure that there's nothing that you wouldn't want your opponents to know."  He initially said that he wasn't worried, but later told me that he immediately ran home and checked both line-by-line. 

Perhaps 27 year-old Jon Favreau, President-elect Barack Obama's incoming director of speechwriting (pictured above right) should have done the same, before the above photo of him with a cardboard cutout of Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton (D - NY), Obama's nominee for Secretary of State popped up on his Facebook page last week, along with many others like it and quickly ended up in the Washington Post.  While sources told the Post that the photos, part of an album taken and posted by a friend were quickly taken down and he likely won't lose his job over the incident, it certainly cost him a great deal of embarrassment and what I'm sure was an embarrassing apologetic phone call to Clinton.

Obama, whose own campaign and their grassroots supporters utilized social networking extensively during the campaign, even hiring Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg to manage many of the technical aspects of their campaign and form their own social network at my.barackobama.com, even has questions about information on social networking sites on the questionnaire that those applying for jobs in the survey for applicants:

Question No. 58 in the transition team vetting document for the Obama White House asks that applicants: "Please provide the URL address of any websites that feature you in either a personal or professional capacity (e.g. Facebook, My Space, etc.)"

Question No. 63 asks that applicants "please provide any other information ... that could ... be a possible source of embarrassment to you, your family, or the President-Elect."

The Post also reported that this was not the first time in recent months that a high-level political staffer to experience cyber-embarrassment:

Favreau is not the first campaign aide whose online presence has proved awkward. Last March, John McCain aide Soren Dayton forwarded an anti-Obama YouTube video to his private Twitter feed linking Obama with the Rev. Jeremiah Wright, leading to his suspension from the campaign. And in 2007, two bloggers hired by former North Carolina senator John Edwards stepped down after blog posts they had written before he hired them became a subject of controversy.

So where does Favreau stand now?  The Post reports:

Favreau's case seems unlikely to be so dire; Clinton senior adviser Philippe Reines cast the photos as evidence of increased bonhomie between the formerly rival camps.

Senator Clinton is pleased to learn of Jon's obvious interest in the State Department, and is currently reviewing his application," he said in an e-mail.

I encourage all of my readers to check your social networking pages for potential ebarassments.