@Whitehouse Hosting Twitter Town Hall On Wednesday 121
CWmike writes "In another milestone, the White House will hold its first Twitter town hall forum on Wednesday. President Barack Obama, known for using technology and Web 2.0 tools since his presidential campaign, will answer Twitter users' questions (submit them here) in a live webcast about the U.S. economy and jobs at 2 p.m. Eastern time on Wednesday. Twitter co-founder and Executive Chairman Jack Dorsey will moderate a conversation between Obama and Twitterers across the country. Twitter users can submit questions using the hashtag #AskObama. Some questions will be taken up in advance and others will be grabbed real-time during the event, Twitter said. In a blog post, Twitter executives said a conversation about the U.S. economy will fit right in with regular Twitter activity."
Good luck with that (Score:5, Interesting)
The BBC uses Twitter during its Question Time programme that gets a few million viewers. There are usually several tweets per second, far too fast for anyone to read or respond to. People resort to re-tweeting the same thing over and over again just to be heard.
In a room full of journalists they have to pick one to ask questions and have everyone else shut up. Try doing that on Twitter.
Bread and Circuses (Score:5, Interesting)
They knew this trick back in the time of the Roman Empire.
Bread and Circuses: bribe the population with free bread and distract them with circuses whilst the ruling classes do whatever they want.
In this case Obama is seeking to distract the US from the fact he's renaged on all of his campaign promises, Gitmo is still open for business, the PATRIOT act was renewed (dishonestly snuck through Congress by a Democrat) and the US will be defaulting on it's debts any time now (whilst members of congress invest in funds that will make money when the US goes bust).
But never mind all of that: Obama is a Twit now!
Re:Amazing. (Score:2, Interesting)
Bull, the President and the Democratic Party held the Executive Branch and both houses of the Legislative Branch for two years and pushed only two things, more debt and the worst, most convoluted, ill conceived health care proposal ever attempted.
In the 2010 mid-term the Democrats hemmed and hawed without getting a budget passed which made the House and Senate leadership look like idiots, that all in turn gave the Republicans the House and nearly gave them the Senate.
Don't blame the Republicans for the Democratic Party's incompetence. The real problem in Washington isn't the Teabaggers or the base GOP, it's Harry Reid and Nancy Pelosi failing for four years straight.
Re:Amazing. (Score:3, Interesting)
Unfortunately, when the entire opposition party has made their one and only goal your destruction, you can't really do anything about it. They're willing to push the country into default for the first time in history, destroying the lives of millions.
The only people who are saying "default for the first time in history" are Democrats who are fear mongering to scare little girls like you; and it has happened [spectator.org] before. The reality [creditwritedowns.com] is that the United States would not default; the government would use the money it brings in to service the debt and there would be a partial government shutdown.
Re:Bread and Circuses (Score:2, Interesting)
In this case Obama is seeking to distract the US from the fact he's renaged on all of his campaign promises, Gitmo is still open for business, the PATRIOT act was renewed (dishonestly snuck through Congress by a Democrat) and the US will be defaulting on it's debts any time now (whilst members of congress invest in funds that will make money when the US goes bust).
All of his promises [politifact.com], eh? Here's the breakdown from politifact.com:
* Promise Kept 137
* Compromise 40
* Promise Broken 43
* Stalled 69
* In the Works 217
* Not yet rated 2
"Renaged [sic] on all of his campaign promises", indeed.
Also, as someone else pointed out above, the guy's not a dictator. Like it or not, he has to work with others to get things done.