Buzz Builds Over Obama Online Town Hall
As of Wednesday evening, 32,165 Internet users had submitted 33,334 questions and cast 1,195,231 votes in anticipation of President Barack Obama's online town hall on Thursday at 11:30 a.m. The "Open for Questions" session in the East Room of the White House will focus on the economy and will be webcast live on WhiteHouse.gov. Vice President Joe Biden's chief economist Jared Bernstein will facilitate the discussion, reading some of the most popular questions that were submitted. Afterward, Obama will take follow-up questions from his live audience. A Roosevelt fireside chat, this ain't.
The 100-member on-site audience will be composed of teachers, nurses, small business owners, and community leaders-- and an audience of thousands will watch the event online, White House officials said. The town hall, which takes a page from the tech-savvy transition team's playbook, takes citizen participation one step further than the presidential campaign's YouTube debates. The forum is powered by Google Moderator, a program that lets users decide which questions are most important. The hoopla over the publicly available, open source tool is good PR for Google, which already had close ties to Team Obama. While we can't be sure what questions will be posed to the president since voting closes at 9:30 a.m., here are some of the most popular (corrected for spelling and grammar):
"As a student, who like so many others works full time and attends school full time, only to break even at the end of the month, what is the government doing to make higher education more affordable for lower and middle class families?"
-- James, Bloomington, Indiana
"What are your plans for the failing 'War on Drugs' that's sucking money from tax payers and putting non-violent people in prison longer than the violent criminals?"
-- Matt B, West Bend, Wisconsin
"Are you still planning on penalizing the big business execs who take U.S. jobs out of the country?"
-- Bart, Virginia
"What is the U.S. doing to bring back a solid manufacturing infrastructure? The U.S. used to be one of the most self sufficient countries in the world, now we can't get the basics without importing. Clothes, steel, cars, toys, food, oil. All imports"
-- Scottg, Pennsylvania
"President Obama, Do you plan on letting science end the failed 'war' on marijuana for personal and medical use thus taking the strain off our prisons and police forces so that we no longer have to arrest over 800,000 non violent drug offenders?"
-- Phill, Georgetown, Mass.
"What are your plans to encourage corporations to keep middle class jobs, such as customer service call centers and transactional based support services like accounting and computer program jobs, in the U.S?"
-- PAG, Houston, Texas
The National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws has obviously mobilized its members. NORML's Web site points out that the most popular question in the "Budget" category is: "With over 1 out of 30 Americans controlled by the penal system, why not legalize, control, and tax marijuana to change the failed war on drugs into a money making, money saving boost to the economy?" Similarly, under the topic "Financial Stability," the most asked question is: "Would you support the bill currently going through the California legislature to legalize and tax marijuana, boosting the economy and reducing drug cartel related violence?"
All signs point to Internet Q&As becoming a regular feature of the Obama administration. "It's a way for the president to do what he enjoys doing out on the road, but saves on gas," White House press secretary Robert Gibbs told reporters Wednesday.
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