When George W. Bush was sworn in as the nation’s 43rd president, he got the keys to the White House, the black bag with the nuclear launch codes, a bunch of official-looking stationery and other assorted goodies that have been passed along from POTUS to POTUS for decades.

He also became the first chief executive to inherit a new sort of presidential perk: the official White House Web site.

Before Bill Clinton took office eight years ago, the White House’s node on the text-dominated Internet wasn’t any more of an attraction than Monica Lewinsky. But after the World Wide Web started picking up steam in 1993, executive branch underlings posted some pictures and propaganda at www.whitehouse.gov and built a site that now stands among the most popular on the Net.

The site evolved significantly during Clinton’s two terms, becoming a comprehensive resource for both current news and ancient history. It offers portraits and biographies of past presidents, a virtual tour of the White House and streaming audio broadcasts of the president’s weekly radio address. It’s also the home page for official White House spin, including the glowing review of Clinton’s accomplishments that took top billing on the site in early January.

That’s likely to be among the first things deleted once Bush’s geeks inherit the server passwords from Clinton’s crew. Whether the new guys keep the nonpartisan historical pages depends on how completely the Bushies want to flush out the memory of their Democratic predecessors. Given the vitriol many Republicans have spewed about Clinton, Bush might be inclined to format the hard drives and start from scratch.

For historical purposes, the White House site as it existed under Clinton will be kept intact by the National Archives at clinton.nara.gov. The Library of Congress, meanwhile, will be maintaining pages of Congresses past at Thomas (thomas.loc.gov), the legislative body’s official home page.

So what will Bush do with the real White House site? And what about the dozens of sites posted by various executive agencies? Everybody knows Bush likes tax cuts, and we can guess that he’d let Exxon drill through Mount Rushmore if there was a chance of striking oil. But what’s Dubya’s Web strategy?

It’s entirely possible he doesn’t have one. Bush has had plenty of more important things to worry about, after all, including the chance that some of his Cabinet nominees might have failed to make Social Security payments on tips they left for undocumented busboys at their favorite restaurants.

So in the interest of making Bush’s transition to power a little smoother, I’m offering some free advice for the new Webmaster in Chief. If he can manage to stick to a few simple principles and make sure someone follows through on the details he can make the original White House site look like a bug-ridden beta version.

-Priority one: Share everything. Clinton posted press releases and radio addresses, but Bush could improve his standing among Net users by actually breaking news online. If announcements were posted on whitehouse.gov even before they were handed to reporters, the site could be transformed from a tourist trap into a haven for newshounds. Why not get a jump on the spin and let the pundits play catch-up?

-Priority two: Protect privacy. The Clinton administration talked a good game, but most of its Web sites couldn’t live up to the baseline privacy standards set by its own Federal Trade Commission. If Bush’s tech team can manage to post clear privacy policies and stick to them, they’ll already be ahead of the game. They’ll also be in a better position to oppose new Internet privacy laws in favor of self-regulation, a position Bush seems inclined to take.

-Priority three: Encourage innovation. Last summer, Texas posted the beginnings of an “e-Government Portal” that, when finished, will provide one-stop shopping for state government services. He should bring the same approach to the federal government.

Just one example: There’s no reason the Internal Revenue Service couldn’t allow taxpayers to file returns online using up-to-date, interactive forms on a secure government Web site.

There’s nothing dramatic here just commonsense principles that also happen to be easy to pronounce. So for Bush, taking care of this Internet thing should be a piece of cake. Heck, he already beat the guy who invented it.

To contact syndicated columnist Joe Salkowski, you can e-mail him at [email protected] or write to him c/o Tribune Media Services Inc., 435 N. Michigan Ave., Suite 1400, Chicago, IL 60611.