President Barack Obama held a very interactive town hall meeting at the White House Thursday, which included questions from online users from all over the country regarding the state of our country. This was the first online town hall discussion ever hosted at the White House. The President answered questions concerning the mortgage crisis, education, healthcare, national service, and assistance for veterans. A live audience joined Obama, while a TV screen revealed the online questions and video submissions from inquiring Americans.
About 93,000 people submitted more than 104,000 questions to the administration’s web site – WhiteHouse.gov, which also provided live streaming of the meeting. Online users would vote for the most popular questions to be asked during the discussion which Obama promised to answer directly. Over 3.6 million votes for specific questions were tallied once voting closed on early Thursday. Obama engaged with the audience as well as he took questions from a number of people who joined him that morning.
Here’s Obama’s response when asked about education reform:
“So a lot of times in Washington, we get an argument about money versus reform. And the key thing to understand about our education system is we need more resources and we need reform,” he said. “If we just put more money into a system that’s designed for the 19th century and we’re in the 21st, we’re not going to get the educational outcomes we need.”
With Thursday’s online meeting, the President’s actions reassures us that he is still sticking to his commitment to keep us fully engaged in the process of turning this country around, and not only for that reason, but for us to actually have a say so regarding any decisions that will affect us. After all it is not about Democrats or Republicans, it’s about us as Americans being able to achieve that “American Dream” once again.
PHOTO: WENN
