Thursday, March 26th, 2009
White House 'Open for Questions'
Today the President Barak Obama held his first 'Open for Questions' event in the East Room of the White House. Basically the White House invited people to submit questions online. Over 100,000 people submitted questions and 3.6 million votes were cast.
Most questions weren't particularly surprising. Americans are duly concerned about education, health-care, veterans and the economy, and the President talked at length about these topics. But amid the collapse of the global financial system, raging populism and a near-crisis in health-care, it seems that one group of Americans has mobilized to ask the tough questions: Stoners. Yep, that's right, in a rare display of motivated activism, stoners managed to make one of a question about marijuana legalization one of the most popular. President Barack Obama respond:
"I have to say that there was one question that was voted on that ranked fairly high and that was whether legalizing marijuana would improve the economy -- (laughter) -- and job creation. And I don't know what this says about the online audience -- (laughter) -- but I just want -- I don't want people to think that -- this was a fairly popular question; we want to make sure that it was answered. The answer is, no, I don't think that is a good strategy -- (laughter) -- to grow our economy. (Applause.)"
If you missed it, watch the video of the entire event:
http://www.whitehouse.gov/blog/09/03/26/Wrapping-Up-Open-for-Questions/
White House 'Open for Questions'
Today the President Barak Obama held his first 'Open for Questions' event in the East Room of the White House. Basically the White House invited people to submit questions online. Over 100,000 people submitted questions and 3.6 million votes were cast.
Most questions weren't particularly surprising. Americans are duly concerned about education, health-care, veterans and the economy, and the President talked at length about these topics. But amid the collapse of the global financial system, raging populism and a near-crisis in health-care, it seems that one group of Americans has mobilized to ask the tough questions: Stoners. Yep, that's right, in a rare display of motivated activism, stoners managed to make one of a question about marijuana legalization one of the most popular. President Barack Obama respond:
"I have to say that there was one question that was voted on that ranked fairly high and that was whether legalizing marijuana would improve the economy -- (laughter) -- and job creation. And I don't know what this says about the online audience -- (laughter) -- but I just want -- I don't want people to think that -- this was a fairly popular question; we want to make sure that it was answered. The answer is, no, I don't think that is a good strategy -- (laughter) -- to grow our economy. (Applause.)"
If you missed it, watch the video of the entire event:
http://www.whitehouse.gov/blog/09/03/26/Wrapping-Up-Open-for-Questions/
