Uh Oh, Apple Fans: Looks Like Obama Uses a PC

— -- President Barack Obama may be busy drumming up support for his economic stimulus package, but reading between the lines of the president's recent remarks reveals some interesting new nuggets about his computing choices. All right, I'll just say it: Obama's a PC guy.

Hey, it may not be the most important piece of info within the administration right now. But after the back-and-forth debate over Obama's MP3 player allegiance (contrary to original rumors, it turned out our commander in chief rocks it iPod-style), then the brouhaha about his secretive and supersecure BlackBerry-style device (believed by many to be a military-grade machine called the Sectera Edge), there's no denying interest is high in President Obama's preferences for technology. The guy may hope to unite political parties, but when it comes to the world of tech, Obama's quickly learning the sides are as divided as ever.

Intelligence From Intel

Past reports have suggested Obama was a Mac fan (or, at the very least, his campaign staff members were). It now appears, though, the president has taken the PC pledge. The John Hodgman-friendly factoid slipped out in a simple utterance by Intel CEO Paul Otellini, buried within a story by PC World sister publication Computerworld. The statement discusses Obama's support for Intel's decision to invest billions in upgrading its factories:

"Otellini said Obama called him last night to congratulate him on company's decision. The president 'reminded me that he sees the Intel logo every morning when he opens up his laptop; I was pleased to hear that,' he noted."

Exhibit A: "He sees the Intel logo every morning." (Okay, it's the only exhibit. But I've always wanted to say "Exhibit A," and this seemed like a good opportunity.) Now, many Apple products do use Intel chips, right? Mac systems, though -- as the sharp folks over at All Things Digital, who first noticed the sure-to-be-contentious quote, point out -- don't flash the logo around in the way that PCs do. So, even if it's just a result of the White House's Windows system stockpile, it looks like the leader of the free world is likely a man of Microsoft.

Time to update your scorecards, then: The current presidential tech standings are one Mac (for the iPod), one PC (for the laptop). Convince Apple to build Obama an NSA-approved iPhone, and we just might see a majority rule.

For what it's worth, by the way, President Bush sported both an iPod and a PowerBook. Crikey...can't we all just get along?