Obama to hold Twitter town hall

[onehandle]

Source: AP

WASHINGTON (AP) — The White House will host a Twitter town hall with President Barack Obama on July 6.

The president will answer questions submitted via Twitter, which limits messages to 140 characters. The town hall will focus on jobs and the economy, and a video feed of Obama's answers will be streamed online.

While Obama has taken questions submitted on social networking sites in previous town halls, including one hosted by Facebook, the White House says this is the first time the questions will come exclusively through Twitter.

Obama's presidential campaign said last week that Obama himself is starting to regularly tweet from the popular social media service. Tweets sent by the president using his Twitter account will be signed "-BO."

Read more: http://news.yahoo.com/obama-hold-twitter-town-hall-151807746.html

[patrice]

1. Wonder how they'll pick the tweets to answer. nt

[CountAllVotes]

2. my tweet

You said you were going to end the war in Iraq. What happened to that promise?

[alp227]

8. what about the August 2010 pullout? n/t

[FreeBillClinton]

3. Let them eat silly gimmicks

Is he the president or a CNN "news" reader?

[Ian David]

4. 90% of the questions will be about Justin Bieber or legalizing pot. n/t

[Newest Reality]

5. What would be the point?

They don't know what we want and need, yet?

We could resent attempts to placate us with trivial methods that suggest that we are being listened to and represented, ey?

The plethora of major problems in our midst are more than obvious. Asking us what we think, at this point, like debating about whether you should call the fire department while your house is blazing.

Gimmicks are insulting.

[placton]

6. wow how cool and groovy of him!

yawn

[nolabear]

7. I think it's smart. Younger people use Twitter a great deal and they don't watch network news.

I think calling it a gimmick is both accurate and way too dismissive. Politics is a very gimmicky profession. Keep the message out there, control the media, create buzz, and put your particular stamp on things. I'm critical of it being utterly safe, since as I understand it the questions can be cherry picked and the ones not answered are never seen. But he'd be smart to address some of the hard ones. And he can, not necessarily to everyone's satisfaction but with a fair amount of integrity.

What I keep chuckling over is the concept of "Twitter Town."

[CakeGrrl]

10. Exactly. How many people Tweet? And how many watch political hacks on TV? n/t

[FreeBillClinton]

12. Maybe, but it sounds more like what an old person thinks young people like.

[nolabear]

13. It IS what an old person thinks young people like. And he's right.

It's the same as advertisers playing to a demographic. You don't market Depends during Adult Swim. Well, maybe if it's REALLY funny.

[emilyg]

9. I don't care what he holds.

[CakeGrrl]

11. Ya know, somehow I already knew that.

;-)

[nolabear]

14. Sure you do. Btw what would specify a "leader?"

Just wondering.

[frylock]

15. Btw what would specify a "leader?"

[awoke_in_2003]

17. I love that pic. nt

[emilyg]

16. Someone who leads and

doesn't cave in.

[awoke_in_2003]

18. Twitter...

making Americans dumber, one tweet at a time.