Click photo to enlarge
United States President Barack Obama.
President Barack Obama sat down today to become the
first president to take questions from his constituents over
YouTube.
The White House says the session was part of an effort to make
government more interactive with the public. It also is another
way for Obama to communicate directly with voters, using an
emerging technology much as Franklin D. Roosevelt with his
"fireside chats" became the first president to use radio.
The interview allowed Obama to reinforce themes from his
State of the Union address last week. Such post-speech
presidential outreach is traditional, and Obama has been to
Tampa, Florida and Baltimore, Maryland, to discuss parts of
the address in greater detail.
He heads to Nashua, New Hampshire, on Tuesday for another
event.
On Monday, Obama spent about 40 minutes in the White House
Library answering about a dozen of the more than 11,000
questions submitted by YouTube users during and after last
Wednesday's nationally televised speech. Users voted for the
top questions, submitted either on video or in writing, and
YouTube news and political director Steve Grove put some of
them to the president.
The questions covered familiar territory for Obama, ranging
from health care and tax breaks for small businesses to help
for people losing their homes to foreclosure. He also was
asked about policy toward Sudan and closing the military
prison at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. Grove said the White House
had not selected the questions, nor had Obama seen them
before being asked to respond.
The interview was streamed live both on YouTube and the White
House website.
"I hope we get a chance to do this on a more regular basis
because it gives me great access to all the people out there
with wonderful ideas," Obama said as the interview ended.
There was no give-and-take on Monday between Obama and
his questioners. There also was no immediate way to know how
many people tuned in to either website, in the middle of a
work day, to listen to the president.
Wayne Fields, a professor at Washington University in St.
Louis, Missouri, who studies presidential rhetoric, said the
YouTube interview fit with Obama's post-State of the Union
strategy, including a well-received, nationally televised
question-and-answer session at a meeting of Republican
lawmakers Friday in Baltimore. Fields said Obama is trying to
"reconnect with the part of the electorate he was very
effective in activating during the primaries and general
election, a younger audience, many of whom have become
frustrated with the pace of change."
He said the YouTube interview could be seen in the same light
as the fireside chats Roosevelt delivered to the public over
radio during the Great Depression.
Obama is intimately familiar with 21st century technology. He
is the first president with a BlackBerry. He also surfs the
Internet. During the presidential campaign, Obama used the
Internet to connect with voters, mobilise supporters and
raise a record-shattering sum of money.
He has continued to take advantage of that online approach as
president. He expanded the weekly Saturday radio address by
adding a video component and making it available on YouTube.
He held an online town hall at the White House last March,
shortly after beginning his term. A couple of weeks ago, he
sent his first "tweet" on Twitter, although it was not his
message.
A Red Cross employee allowed him to push the button to send
her message announcing a visit by Obama and the first lady.
