Obama’s online townhall: What’s really going on? Updated: Megalomania-palooza!
Scroll down for updates…

At 11:30am Eastern, President Obama will conduct an “online townhall” on the economy.
At this moment, the White House website reports that “92,889 people have submitted 104,079 questions and cast 3,608,538 votes.”
In order to ask a question, you must register your name, e-mail, and zip code.
The DNC, fresh off its failed attempt to muster grass-roots support for the president’s budget, has been aggressively advertising the townhall:
Friend –
I wanted to tell you about an exciting new feature just launched on the White House website called “Open for Questions.”
Here’s how it works — President Obama is inviting everyone to ask a question about the economy and to rate other questions up or down.
On Thursday morning, the President will conduct an online town hall on the economy and answer some of the most popular questions live.
Watch a video of the President explaining this new feature and be a part of it now.
“Open for Questions” is an opportunity to open up the White House to all Americans.
It’s an experiment designed to encourage transparency and accountability by giving you a direct line to the White House.
This first round will deal with the economy. Americans deserve to know what their government is doing to get our economy back on track. But it’s up to you to participate and make this experiment a success.
Join the discussion now:
http://whitehouse.gov/OpenForQuestions
Thanks, and remember to check back Thursday to watch the President answer some of your questions live.
Mitch
Mitch Stewart
Director
Organizing for America
Question: Who will have access to the e-mail registrant list?
The White House privacy policy does not bar sharing of the info with other parties:
Collection and disclosure of information: To ensure we are able to communicate effectively with visitors to our web site, we collect some information that can be directly associated with a specific person. We call this “Personal Information,” and it includes, by way of illustration, names, addresses, telephone numbers and e-mail addresses.
We collect Personal Information from eligible individuals who affirmatively request to receive e-mail or other services from us. We collect this Personal Information in order to provide these eligible individuals with timely information via e-mail regarding events, resources and issues.
It is our general policy not to make Personal Information available to anyone other than our employees, staff, and agents.
Online Comments and Personal Information: We treat your name, city, state, and any comments you provide as public information. We may, for example, provide compilations of your comments to national leaders and other individuals participating in our efforts, without disclosing email addresses. We may also make comments along with your city and state available to the press and public online.
If it is the “general policy” not to share data gathered through the White House website, when and with whom do they make exceptions to the policy? And will the White House notify e-mail registrants when the “general policy” is breached? We saw Team Obama’s rule-bending over Change.gov before.
If this online townhall looks like another permanent campaign registration tool to you, you’re not alone.
***
11:45am Eastern. Obama wasted the first 15 minutes of the “townhall” re-reading his prompter script from the press briefing on Tuesday. The first “hardball” question? How will Obama restore education as a “right?”
12:13pm Eastern. Obama just asked if he could interrupt to make a point. He’s the only one talking.
See what others have said
Note from Michelle: This section is for comments from michellemalkin.com's community of registered readers. Please don't assume that I agree with or endorse any particular comment just because I let it stand. A reminder: Anyone who fails to comply with my terms of use may lose his or her posting privilege.
Trackbacks
- Anger, Lawlessness Fueling U.S., Global Economic Revolution? « Peace and Freedom Global Future
- MM « Sister Toldjah
- Obama’s YouTube Fiasco and Iran - Islamic Terrorists do not respect girly men « Jim Blazsik
- Obama’s online townhall: What’s really going on? Updated: Megalomania-palooza! –
- Obama’s Americorps: Hitler Youth Or Putin’s Nashi « Peace and Freedom Global Future
- Today’s Surfing Map « Conservative Review
- Obama Uses Company That Refuses to Stand Up To China for On Line Town Hall « Peace and Freedom Global Future
- Obama's Online Town Hall Meeting Goes To Pot
- The TIW Blog » Blog Archive » Online town hall fraud
- Obama On Pot. Totally Full Of S%*t. « OutOfTheBlu
- links for 2009-03-27 | FullosseousFlap's Dental Blog
- Michelle Malkin » Obama’s online townhall: What’s really going on … | All About Technology
- Obama’s Face Crime–Hate Speech–Hate Crime–Just Free Speech–Live With It! « Pronk Palisades
- The Three Amigos: Jim Rogers, Yaron Brook, and Ron Paul To President Obama–You Are Wrong Economically and Morally! « Pronk Palisades
- Obama brings change to White House Easter Egg Roll; families lose all hope of getting tickets « Danishova
- "Where’s my moon, my levee, my dream?" « Danishova
Comments
You must be logged in to post a comment.
Categories: Barack Obama
JustOneMinute
» The Prescient Joe Biden
AmSpecBlog
» A Good Time Not to be a Democrat
Riehl World View
» More Climate Change Fraud: Et Tu New Zealand?
Ed Driscoll
» Charges Filed In Kenneth Gladney Case
The Other McCain
» Alan Colmes, having fun at #1
Riehl World View
» Bet: Ratings Fail - Oprah/Obama Christmas Special
Mudville Gazette
» The five-year plan













I heard about this on this morning’s news. You could submit questions via the website & I thought, what a chance to shut down the website with a 100,000 questions asking for his real birth certificate.
‘Economy’ questions be damned!
He’s creating an Obotomatic!
This is exactly how the Votes in Nov. were counted. Fishy Ratios. acorn? acorn?
The prez is a dimwit and a spammer
All of this stuff reminds me of an old Mickey Rooney movie phrase–”Let’s put on a show gang!” Too bad the price of admission is going to destroy us.
Instead of wasting taxpayer money with all these “gee-whiz” internet schemes, designed to show us just how technologically-sophisticated he is, why doesn’t he just quit screwing around and do some work?
I went to the website to ask a question and then realized they would probably log my email and IP address and use it for political gain later on.
Not surprisingly, immigration wasn’t a topic you could select.
Thank you MM and the noisy right for hanging on every word out of the Obama White House. Have a hissy fit over the blog registration privacy policy (I’m sure it will accept fake names and email addresses).
By the way, how is the market doing today? How do you like the Republican alternatives to Obama’s budget? How is Obama doing in the polls today?
As a permanent candidate, could we say he’s really a PINO?
What’s really going on? It’s the teleprompter’s day off.
I think Obama should dress up like Johnny Carson used to with the big turban, and hold the envelope containing the question to his head, give the answer, then open the envelope and read the question. If we’ve got to listen to his bullsh!t, he could at least favor us with a little entertainment!
LGM start your own damn blog if you don’t like the content.
He’ll be using this list for his re-election campaign.
AJ – lgm doesn’t have time to start his own blog – he’s too busy indoctrinating all those innocent young minds.
What do you think about that idea for a 90% tax rate on math teachers?
Wonder who is really going to answer the questions? Him, his surrogates or his teleprompter? And one more question, why do these “elected” officials write letters addressing me as “friend”. Whether they want to believe it or not, I (and you) are their employers. We can fire them! Maybe it is time to teach some of them that.
Since you asked.
The funny part isn’t that his approval rating is slowly dropping, it’s that his disapproval rating is climbing fast. I guess it’s easy to be popular when all you have is campaign slogans and criticism, but when you get judged on actions, people expect results.
Elections have consequences.
I’ve heard of those “hissy” fits . . . as I recall they are positively correlated with a deficiency in the number of effective synapse connections. I would judge that you’ve suffered from these fits and really can’t help yourself.
Now, take a hike over to KOS where you’ll be appreciated.
According to ABCNews.com, the most popular questions being asked are about pot.
Nice crowd of followers there Obama. Good to know where your constituent’s priorities are.
Do we really want this country to become a nation of stoners? Give me a break.
Did anybody notice some of the more popular questions? “Ask just what your country can give to you!” is the new battle cry.
And my personal favorite:
“Low points around the country?” I would suggest she should go teach in higher elevations! And perhaps she should also brush up on apostrophe rules and proper punctuation over the summer.
lgm = lacking gray matter
Couldn’t be better for your side’s (tee-hee) biggest financial backer, George Soros and his hedge fund buddies.
Yes. It’s too bad for libcreeps like you that the Conservative vanguard just won’t go away. “Hissy fit”? – you ain’t seen nothing, yet.
Actually, I am not so negative on this. Of course the issue is how do they choose the questions, but anything that goes around the MSM bottleneck is a good thing.
Another SHAM pulled on the folks In LA LA LAND… From NEW YORK to LA, and all the FLYOVER COUNTRY in between… The SHEEPLE will fall for this, just like they did in the ELECTION… Ohhhh, look, FEARLESS LEADER is going to answer all our QUESTIONS… How sad, HOW DISGUSTING!!!
I guess the DNC wants to add to it’s mailing list.
Transparent for sure. A transparent attempt to build their contact database.
Translation:
I borrowed money and I don’t want to pay it back. Who are you going to force to pay my debt, since it’s obviously unfair to expect me to do it myself?
lgm; let’s see where the stock market is after the end of this quarter. lots of short covering on the financial sector, and lots of 401k money being placed this quarter by end of year bonus recipients. wait until the taxpayers pay the april 15 confiscation, as that generally dips the stock market considerably and will do so this year also.
aka Baron Of Gray Matter!
Sorry lgm, couldn’t resist. I’m a bad boy. (spanks bottom)
Yes, I have a question. “Where the ef is my Blackberry?”
Great point! And yet another example of how PC has gone awry. We have been indoctrinated for years now to believe that children don’t have to obey their parents, that they are smarter than their parents, and by gum, they should be doing whatever they want! No authority figure should be obeyed! Parents should be friends with their children!
This is another example of the topsy-turvy world that PC and liberalism has created.
I wonder what Obama will say, and how much of a drop in the Dow it’ll trigger.
Rumor has it foreign investors no longer trust US debt, meaning the Fed will print more money from thin air (well, a paper/linen mix and special inks, but you know what I meant), further devaluing already existing debt instruments, further weakening confidence in US issued debt, which should trigger more Zimbabwe style non-stop money printing which the government then uses to ‘buy’ its own debt.
One could not damage the US economy and our national security more if one actively tried. Of course, I think the ‘Fresh Prince of Bill Ayers’ is actively trying.
I wonder how many of these questions will come from CONSERVATIVES?? Or from the 95% of the American public that is paying their mortgages and debts on time?
Me, too. A bloodless coup.
Who is going to answer the questions? I’ll bet it’s the TELEPROMPTER. DHS is going to have one hell of a job chasing down all those mean spirited people. I hear that people that don’t agree with him an are vocal get visited by the Feds.
OT
People from Amarillo to Olathe should be preparing for a once in a lifetime Spring Season Winter Storm starting tomorrow that could drop 2 feet of snow from the Northern Texas Panhandle up to Liberal, and along the Oklahoma/Kansas State line to near Olathe.
Power out, howling winds, no travel. Bad stuff.
OK, back on topic.
I am 99 44/100% sure now Obama is a Maoist, and the whole cap and trade thing is to move us all Pol Pot style onto small farming communes, where excess population will be killed off, and the survivors will grow crops without benefit of modern tools.
Mr. President-why won’t you release your birth certificate as millions of us have had to? Is it because you were
A) NOT born in the USA
B) You are a Love Child
C) You haven’t a clue who your father is
or
D) All three?
Respectfully
ArizonaNeanderthal
===================
Damn
Life is cruel
Getting e mail accounts is way more important than N. Korea with a missile on the launch pad.
Wouldn’t it be funny if the folks took a page from the O’Boingo campaign to spam the $#!+ out of this puppy. Using The Onion Router to hide their IP addresses. Not that I would encourage any such thing…
This guy has the same effect as tainted food . . . the only way to get relief is to throw up.
The graph is interesting. The BHO approval line is concave facing downward, and the slope as time increases is negative. The BHO disapproval line is concave facing upward, and the slope as time increases is positive. It appears that these two lines are converging and will soon intersect.
For those MM readers who are not math nerds like I am, I was trying to explain the significance of the lines using terms of calculus so that our math teacher friend can understand future trends.
The graph I was referring to was the one linked in response no. 17. Sorry for not including the quote in my original post.
Is Odopey the President or is he Billy Mays? geez, nothing more on his “townhall” right now but sham wow and oxy clean BS.
G.E.T. T.O. W.O.R.K. !.!.!
Seething with rage, Obamabot leader LGM drops by, knocks on the door, and procedes to harangue the host. You should apply for a job at Soup Kitchen International–I know you’ll just love shouting the company line: “No soup for you!”
If someone would interface a voice Synthesizer with the TOTUS, Obama would have more time for basketball and appearances on The View, Oprah, et. all.
I can assure you the TOTUS would never thank himself like his human half did.
*grinning* Where were the White House Press Corps “titterers” when he bumbled this one????
RNC communication people should be watching this town hall signup-question-submitting process very carefully. Not only does the continuing Obama campaign acquire new names and email addresses, they also acquire points of interest as submitted in the question to categorize and feed back to the potential supporter/contributor in several formats as a way of automating and personalizing future contacts.
Wake up RNC. You should be learning from this process. This online town hall meeting is not an experiment in sharing information and answering questions. It is a unique way of gathering information from impulsive voters.
Q: President Obama, why are all the liberals running around with their heads up their a**es?
A: So they can smell the Hope and Change
The questions are a testament to ask not what you can do for you country, ask what your country can do for you. Unbelievable!! And, is the entire population illiterate?
I wasted an hour going through some of the questions and voting on them…a bunch of “what can you do for me” posts, a bunch of legalize grass posts, maybe 20 or so questioning his birth certificate, and a bunch about 2nd amendment rights…
my favorite:
“Do you plan on statues of yourself all over America like “The OTHER Hussein?”
My second favorite:
“We spend way to much on the United Nations. Make them move to another country and get out of it. We will save a bundle. Stop giving money to other countries, When they go to war with us, do not go and help them build their cities back up.”
no just the obamabots….
As soon as he finds it in the Bill of Rights.
He just jumped from government-should-take-over-student-loans to the Bush-Deficits-Boogyman. Wtf?
He sucks today and every day. How’s that work for ya?
and who exactly is surprised by this ’sharing?’ It’s just Obama doing what Obama does..the Chicago way.
is he talking to the voices in his head???
lol Aviator. smack/down
Two things from George at UrbanSurvival.com:
and this…
Bread and circuses, BTW SS seems to be bankrupt.
Bet the one didn’t mention that one.
LGM: You seem confused, DEMOCRATS are writing the budget, not republicans. DEMOCRATS.
The social security fund is empty, like bush said it would be and the dems said we need not worry about.
I don’t believe for a moment that “unapproved” questions get answered, let alone even get acknowledged/posted.
In fact, cynical me suggests those asking “unapproved” questions just might have their ip addresses recorded.
George and the ALTA Group has something to say about your ignorance:
Oh man, I need to see the vid of that. way too funny.
He’s spending to much time with Bidet…..
teleprompter told him to do it.
I so hope none of you Real Americans ™ used your real name/contact data.
Not that using a fake name would help – they have your ISP/DNS…
See ya at The Camps (TM)!
Just for lgm re Obama’s approval ratings, Iowahawks take on it
http://iowahawk.typepad.com/iowahawk/2009/03/requiem-for-a-lightweight.html
This guy is giving Chap a bad name. A lawyer?? I highly doubt it – or maybe law degree same way Obama got his – law degree by affirmative action.
They give my nephew a drug that solves that problem.
Who the heck are all of the people that have so much free time that they can sit on the internet all day long and not have a real job???
Give LGM a break. The left was briefly happy for a few days following the inaguration and now they’re back to being miserable, self absorbed, whiners. They really, honestly believed Barackie was going to fly his unicorn around the grounds of the WH sprinkling fairy dust on the nation with his magic wand. Now they’re pouting.
LGM – here’s another “pearl” from your Obamessiah:
Yup, the Tax-and-Spenditis is spinning so far out of control even YOU will finally, at some point, squeal loudly for Vaseline…
Holy smokes! Did you hear the answer> We’ll give out more grants!
I luv Iowahawk!
Way OT:
My Dell is in love with the TOTUS. She is not sure if she can write fan mail to TOTUS or even if there is a Mrs. TOTUS.
And could a famous hunk-o-equipment like TOTUS even be interested in a plain ole DELL. (Well, not SO plain — she does have a BlueTooth modem and some extra RAM, but not like THAT RAM, feminine RAM, really. Honest. My Dell doesn’t go AC/DC, ya know.)
Obama can email me at handsoffmybonus@aig.com.
“Roses are red, violets are blue.
I’m schizophrenic and so am I.”
I have often wondered about which gym TOTUS goes to. There’s not an ounce of fat on him and he seems to have abs of steel (aluminum?).
I think TOTUS is like Chap – a closet conservative. However TOTUS may be a plant (one of us perhaps?) and will start to insert conservative phrases into O’s speeches over the next few months.
HHHMMMM, I can’t figure out why he didn’t answer my questions???? LMAO!
“Why won’t you be honest and tell people this is actually a healthcare rationing program.”
“Why are you trying to force and mandate public volunteerism? You do know conscription has been eliminated since the draft and it is a violation of the 13th amendment?”
“Why won’t you give us your actual Birth Certificate and not a copy of a Live Birth Certificate?”
Michelle,
According to 44 U.S.C. 35 and 5 CFR 1320 (there are about 18 chapters each), any information we collect from the public (10 or more people/entities) the approval must come from OMB to collect such information. Information can be like your name, address, phone number, email address, etc. The process takes about 6-9 months for approval because it must go through several steps before it gets to OMB. First, a 60-day notice must be filed with the Federal Register requesting comments from the public. Then, a 30-day notice must be filed with the Federal Register informing the public that they are seeking OMB’s approval to collect such information. By law, OMB has 60 days to look at the Information Collection Request (ICR). However, it does not mean that OMB has to make a decision within those 60 days.
So, my question is this: how can they subvert the law by by-passing the mandatory, regulatory requirements?
PS: I’m the information collection manager for one of the gov’t agency here in DC.
No surprise, a link to this was on Google’s home page yesterday. Maybe they’re selling your info to the Chinese.
I must say, given his insane rush to spend as many taxpayer dollars as he could get away with as quickly as he could, within the first 200 hours of his administration, to address a “dire” and urgent situation and “stimulate” our cold-corpse economy, Obama sure is taking his good old sweet time to get around to staffing the Treasury Department.
Clearly he’d rather screw around and hold superfluous Q-and-A sessions, in order to address irrelevancies like marijuana.
I predicted these type of comments.
And you ain’t seen nothin’ yet. Wait until the AP, Reuters, and the NYT start running stimulus success stories.
I predict that the economy will recover as the media continues to boast the effectiveness of White House policies by spinning the news.
However, the economy will always be handicapped by the socialist methodologies being initiated.
Here you go from Politico
Obama doesn’t have a clue.
http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0309/20494.html
lgm said:
Just like Obama’s website did while collecting campaign contributions! At least he’ll be consistent.
It’s still down nearly two thousand points since the day Obama was elected. Hope! Change!
One of these days he’s going to say, “pause for laughter”. Of course, the only real laughter will erupt unintended.
Of course the stimulus is going to work. You cant dump that much fake money into a fake vacuum when the entire ‘depression/recession’ is built on a false psychological manifestation.
But watch the video of the FedEx plane crashing in Tokyo.
The economic oscillations will only grow worse until it will be unable to sustain its own momentum.
Behind every great man there is a psycho biatch from hell…
(now how did I miss out on the greatness? oh thats right, you’re not supposed to fire the boss)
What! Ask BHO a question??? That’s just asking for the “Joe the Plumber” treatment.
I believe he graduated from the same school Lionel Hutz did.
Just think, those of you who signed in on the Won’s webpage, you won’t even have to vote next time, because some kind hearted citizen has done it for you. You gave them everything they need to take care of that little matter for you.
Typical Democrat who lies rather than submit the truth. Must be related to slick Willie.
My 401k is still down 30% since Obama took office. I would not say that is something to crow about. Don’t brag to me about that market bs. Some Liberals don’t think before they speak. Probably been prayin
I also heard Obama say he doesn’t take blame when markets go down so he should not be taking credit when it goes up. What a tool.