red states rule
07-07-2011, 03:50 AM
Pres Obama held another pep rally, got glowing coverage from the liberal media, had screeners filter the questions he "answered" and those who still support him felt warm all over
In other words, another wasted day in the Obama Presidency
Barack Obama is the cool president. He listens to Jay-Z, you guys! He fist-bumped Michelle!
Twitter is the cool social media platform. It's the best way to get breaking news, make stupid jokes, keep up with old friends and even find new ones. In the five years since its inception, it's gained about 200 million registered users. CNN runs Tweets in its news crawl. Even the Pope joined in last month.
On Wednesday, the cool president teamed up with the cool website. So why did it flop so hard?
The idea had promise. The president of the United States sitting down to take questions from millions of average schlubs in real time? That's exciting! And the name — "Twitter Town Hall" — is so evocative, the perfect blend of old-timey and new. But the name was misleading. Obama's event wasn't really Twitter, and what's more, it wasn't really a town hall.
Which isn't to say it wasn't impeccably crafted. The website — askobama.twitter.com — is beautifully set up. The design is uncluttered, and the streaming video was clear and glitch-free. A Twitter livestream alongside the video made it easy to follow along and included all the questions, even those that Obama never would have answered in a million years ("Did G.W. Bush leave his Hot Wheels track in the Oval Office?").
And of course the president never could have answered everybody. Hundreds of thousands of Twitter users participated, and only a fraction of them got their questions answered. But those that did get through were filtered by "curators" and screened by experts, so most of them were less than challenging. In the first 45 minutes of the meeting, only New York Times columnist Nicholas Kristof and Speaker of the House John Boehner lobbed the hardballs — two people with, presumably, significantly more access to the White House than the average Twit.
http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/opinion/ct-oped-0707-tweets-20110707,0,3519348.story
In other words, another wasted day in the Obama Presidency
Barack Obama is the cool president. He listens to Jay-Z, you guys! He fist-bumped Michelle!
Twitter is the cool social media platform. It's the best way to get breaking news, make stupid jokes, keep up with old friends and even find new ones. In the five years since its inception, it's gained about 200 million registered users. CNN runs Tweets in its news crawl. Even the Pope joined in last month.
On Wednesday, the cool president teamed up with the cool website. So why did it flop so hard?
The idea had promise. The president of the United States sitting down to take questions from millions of average schlubs in real time? That's exciting! And the name — "Twitter Town Hall" — is so evocative, the perfect blend of old-timey and new. But the name was misleading. Obama's event wasn't really Twitter, and what's more, it wasn't really a town hall.
Which isn't to say it wasn't impeccably crafted. The website — askobama.twitter.com — is beautifully set up. The design is uncluttered, and the streaming video was clear and glitch-free. A Twitter livestream alongside the video made it easy to follow along and included all the questions, even those that Obama never would have answered in a million years ("Did G.W. Bush leave his Hot Wheels track in the Oval Office?").
And of course the president never could have answered everybody. Hundreds of thousands of Twitter users participated, and only a fraction of them got their questions answered. But those that did get through were filtered by "curators" and screened by experts, so most of them were less than challenging. In the first 45 minutes of the meeting, only New York Times columnist Nicholas Kristof and Speaker of the House John Boehner lobbed the hardballs — two people with, presumably, significantly more access to the White House than the average Twit.
http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/opinion/ct-oped-0707-tweets-20110707,0,3519348.story