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He’s Your President
Jules Crittenden —
... You ask him. Obama wants to hear from you. OK, maybe not, but Ask The President at Community Counts, with The Nation and the Washington Times promise to ask your questions, if they make the cut. An autographed copy of my own presidential pre-memoir, “The Audacity of Bad Decisions,” to the reader who gets one through. I need to think up a couple of my own. Let’s see. Give him a chance to explain complex policy matters. A couple of slow pitches: “Mr. President, universal health care is the long-term answer to our nation’s economic woes. True or false?” Might need a little ...
"Ask the President" Launches; Let the Public Pick Questions for Obama
techPresident —
On the first full day of his presidency, Barack Obama issued an executive memo calling on the government to become more transparent, participatory and collaborative . He wrote: My Administration is committed to creating an unprecedented level of openness in Government. We will work together to ensure the public trust and establish a system of transparency, public participation, and collaboration. Openness will strengthen our democracy and promote efficiency and effectiveness in Government. Of course, public participation is a two-way street. That's why, today, Personal Democracy Forum is proud to announce that we are partnering ...
Katrina vanden Heuvel: Ask the President
Politics on HuffingtonPost.com —
... So far, initial conversations about this project with The White House have been encouraging. We see this as an innovation that President Obama should welcome -- an independent, cooperative way to forward the President's promise of transparent government that empowers voices beyond Washington.
You can read the proposal in more detail by checking out Ari Melber's article in the current issue of The Nation; then go and submit your questions now at Ask the President.
The technology, of course, is a means to an end: an engaged and excited ...
Daily Digest | "Ask The President" Participatory Forum Launches
techPresident —
"Ask the President" Launches; Let the Public Pick Questions for Obama On the first full day of his presidency, Barack Obama issued an executive memo calling on the government to become more transparent, participatory and collaborative. Well today, Personal Democracy Forum is proud to announce we're partnering with a cross-partisan coalition of old and new media in launching " Ask the President ," an open, collaborative, participatory forum where anyone can post a question and vote up their favorites. Read more . Rep. Mike Honda Wants Your Ideas on Transforming the Citizen-Govt Relationship Micah commends ...
Ari Melber: Beyond Obama's Town Hall
Politics on HuffingtonPost.com —
President Obama fielded eight questions from guests at his town hall event Thursday, including one from the instantly famous eight-year-old Ethan Lopez. It is obviously great for the President to directly interact with citizens, especially as the nation makes such big choices about how to address the economic crisis. Why should the opportunity be arbitrarily limited, however, to people who happened to attend a packed presidential event in one part of the country?
There's no good answer.
At least, not anymore. People used to argue that local events were the only way for a President to hear directly from ...
Ari Melber: NBC's Chuck Todd Gathers Citizen Questions for Obama Presser
Politics on HuffingtonPost.com —
In another example of traditional journalists experimenting with participatory media, Chuck Todd, NBC's White House Correspondent, is gathering questions from citizens in preparation for Tuesday's prime time press conference with President Barack Obama.
Todd is soliciting question ideas from blog commenters, both through Newsvine.com and a plug on MSNBC's First Read, and he will also look over some of the top questions voted by citizens at Ask The President, (which I just launched in a partnership with The Nation, PDF and ...
Ari Melber: Big Questions for President Obama's Big Press Conference
Politics on HuffingtonPost.com —
... , yet it "can also lead to bad decisions." If the public's feelings on the economy are important, it would be useful to hear some of them accurately presented to the President. Our citizen portal, for example, already drew over 35,000 votes in its first five days, and includes many Americans writing in their own voice about their concerns on the economy, health care, and how the nation should conquer this crisis. ...
Pressing Questions for Prime-time
The Nation: Top Stories —
... , yet it "can also lead to bad decisions." If the public's feelings on the economy are important, it would be useful to hear some of them accurately presented to the President. Our citizen portal , for example, already drew over 35,000 votes in its first five days, and includes many Americans writing in their own voice about their concerns on the economy, health care, and how the nation should conquer this crisis. 5. Will any reporters go beyond the (hugely important) economic issues to ask about the recently released memos claiming the President has the power to suspend the ...
Questions for Obama
Ben Smith's Blog —
... Two rich online sources of questions for Obama's press conference this evening are Ask the President, a Digg-style forum where users can vote questions up and down, and a flood of responses to Jake Tapper on ...
Mr. President?
The Caucus —
... because the president’s not wild about them.) Feel free to submit your own questions in the comments section below. In addition, some bloggers and media organizations want to break through that media gate and allow “the people” to ask questions of President Obama at these press events. The Nation, the Washington Times and the Personal Democracy Forum, among others, set up “ Ask the President, ” a new forum at communitycounts.com for people to submit questions or video online. The questions are voted on thumbs-up and thumbs down at the site; at the moment, the question with the ...
Last Night's Press Conference: Obama Shuns Newspapers, Reporters Call "Audibles"
techPresident —
... Of course, Personal Democracy Forum has partnered up with Ask the President, an effort to add a structured framework to tapping the collective thinking of the American people during these sorts of press rituals. (As of this morning, 5,800 people have voted on 875 questions on ATP.) That's a practice that journalists at the White House last night also subscribe to. NBC's Chuck Todd and ABC's Jake Tapper, as the Nation's Ari Melber notes, have ...
Christina Bellantoni: In total, Obama fields 88 questions since Nov. 4
Politics on HuffingtonPost.com —
... The folks over at Ask the President (a Wash Times/Nation/Personal Democracy Forum venture) have a compilation of tons of good questions. ...
Ari Melber: President Obama's Never-Ending Virtual Town Hall
Politics on HuffingtonPost.com —
... and so far, the Washington press corps has accepted those boundaries. In the President's first two press conferences, there was not a a single question on popular proposals for single payer health care. Many citizens, however, are still wondering if the U.S. will adopt "a universal health care system, like many European countries," as a Californian named Richard wrote, in what became the most popular health care question on WhiteHouse.gov. (A single payer query was also one of the most popular questions according to citizen votes at ...
Obama's Ongoing Virtual Town Hall
The Nation: Top Stories —
... about employer-based reforms, and so far, the Washington press corps has accepted those boundaries. In the president's first two press conferences, there was not a a single question on popular proposals for single-payer healthcare. Many citizens, however, are still wondering if the United States will adopt "a universal healthcare system, like many European countries," as a Californian named Richard wrote, in what became the most popular health care question on WhiteHouse.gov. (A single-payer query was also one of the most popular questions according to citizen ...
Using Distributed Media (and People) To Ask Hard Questions
techPresident —
... experiment, drawing from citizens’ questions, that was modestly successful. The Nation magazine, for which Ari Melber is Net movement correspondent and blogger, joined with the Washington Times and Personal Democracy Forum on a project they’ve called “ Ask the President ” — creating what Melber called a “people’s press conference” of sorts. Again, a positive step forward, in particular because it uses online community tools to (attempt to) figure out what the best questions may be. But the press conference metaphor misses the wide potential, which was so neatly captured by the ...
Announcing BOF ("Birds-of-a-feather") Sessions at PdF09
techPresident —
... project to try to inject voter-generated and -approved questions into the presidential primary debates, and more recently Ask the President made a similar push around White House press conferences. Can we build on these efforts? Can we figure out how to institutionalize more bottom-up questioning of public officials in settings like debates and press conferences? And is there a way to galvanize a larger movement of citizens directly questioning authorities, as Dan Gillmor ...
