Monday, October 18, 2010

Obama Town Hall Pt 1

Last Thursday, MTV/BET/CMT held a town hall with President Obama where he answered questions from students and youth voters. You can find the full video on the BET site. They included a Twitter Tracker where they scanned twitter to see what questions people wanted answered. It was an interesting idea, using hashtags such as #askjobs or #askeconomy for people that couldn't make it to still ask questions about specific issues. It was a nice try to incorporate new technologies, but the focus and hype given to how cool they are for using twitter almost made it seem like your parents asking you to Facebook them to show how hip they are.

Quick Take:

Pros:
  • Obama did a good job of recapping some his legislative highlights which is pretty important because he did accomplish quite a few great things that aren't mentioned often enough (SAFRA)
  • He makes a few strong commitments (ending Don't Ask Don't Tell) that are reassuring to see he is still committed to the promises he made in 08.
  • He knows when to turn on the knowledge and explain some of the issues that young people are less knowledgeable about.
Cons
  • Sidesteps most questions when asked about future actions and instead talks in vague promises to reform this or fix that. Makes it seem like he thinks young people either couldn't understand or wouldn't notice that most of his answers aren't very substantive.
  • Sometimes just ignored the question and used it instead to make sure he hit his talking points on the issue brought up.
  • The Twitter Tracker, I find it hard to believe that out of the 250 people in attendance, they couldn't find enough good questions. Yes twitter allows you to connect in real time but they could've spent less time checking the Twitter Tracker and just asked a question somebody sent in via Twitter.
Questions:


The first question came from a Republican who praised Obama for campaigning in 08 on the promise of bipartisanship but felt betrayed when he ignored Republican suggestions on the Healthcare bill that was passed earlier this year.

Obama sidestepped responding to any issue based proposals and framed the question as that he intended to work together with the Republicans but they collectively refused to work with the Democrats on the bill. He then used the opportunity to talk about what the bill accomplished and how it affects young people, can stay on parents plan until you're 26, abolish lifetime limits and preexisting condition denials and then promised to work more with Republicans on upcoming issues after the midterm elections. It has been pretty clear that Republicans have been doing their best to stall Democratic initiatives by voting no on quite a few bills, Obama claimed that there were Republican ideas in the bill that were added but failed to mention any. It would've been good to see some explanation of Republican ideas instead of just blaming Republicans and using the time to praise the bill.


A pretty good question is asked here, what is going to be done about rising unemployment rates and why should young people vote for Obama and support his policies. The question is especially relevant for many young people who, upon graduation, find out that a bachelor's degree isn't necessarily good enough to find them a job in their desired market.

Obama's response was that he inherited the job losses from the previous administration and then cites some statistics to show that more jobs would have been lost if his economic policies weren't initiated. Obama says that private sector jobs are growing and then mentions this elections hot word, small businesses, referencing his bill that provides loans to small businesses. He brings up the contentious Bush tax cuts as proof of his commitment to trying to ease the financial burden on people. He does his best to address the issue but with so much going on and the amount of time that has been put in to fix the economy and the amount of time it takes to recover it's tough to fully explain this issue in 5 minutes.


In this one, a student who felt that her primary education in DC wasn't enough and that college prices are impossible for some individuals to afford asks what Obama has done about these.

At this point Professor Obama takes over, giving the students a history lesson of how primary education came about. He rails on how we've slipped in the rankings and speaks of his commitment to making America #1 in all education aspects but doesn't really say much of how to achieve the goal besides teach better and get better teachers. It's easy to say but a lot harder to back up. Not to say the Obama administration hasn't shown dedication to school reform, but the Race to the Top program was only awarded to a handful of states and wasn't compulsory reform. It's a good start, but there's still a long way to go.

However, I greatly applaud Obama's efforts on making college more affordable. I wasn't even aware of the American Opportunity Tax Credit, which gives a $2,500 tax credit for any individual making less than $80,000 or married couple with an income of less than $160,000 for school. That article does a great job of explaining fully the system and it's benefits. But my favorite legislation of the last year is the Student Aid and Fiscal Responsibility Act. Obama mentions this, and rightly so, as it is an amazing achievement to promote higher education. This bill increases the amount of money available in Pell Grant aid, and eliminates government subsidies to banks for student loans and instead uses the subsidy money to increase government funded student loans. This bill has a lot of other great stuff which I will talk about more in depth on another post but moving on.


A student who was a victim of anonymous cyber bullying asks what can be done to eliminate this harassment.

A somewhat lackluster response, essentially saying that the administration will make sure "institutions" are aware that cyber bullying is bad and can sometimes break the law. As well as reminding the audience that what they say online can be hurtful. Other than mentioning that a summit was held, with no real details about what came out of the summit, the response didn't really say how to solve the problem.


A good question, especially given the recent injunction, as to why Obama hasn't done an Executive Order to repeal Don't Ask Don't Tell.

First, this video is a great example of how charismatic Obama is. He has no problem engaging the audience and it goes a long way in gaining support. This is pretty much the best explanation of Obama's strategy so far on this issue. 1. He can't sign an executive order to end DADT because Congress has passed a law recognizing it. 2. He explains the steps he's taken to make sure Congress repeals the act, talking with military leaders, and talking with legislators. While he could be more outspoken, his efforts in making sure this is done the right way to fix this policy once and for all are commendable.

Favorite Quote: "This policy will end and it will end on my watch"

6. Sexual Orientation

A kinda annoying plug for their Twitter Tracker station but a good question is asked about is being gay/trans a choice:


This one is a nice layup for Obama and he answers appropriately, it's not a choice and "discrimination of sexual orientation is wrong".


Kinda surprised to see a questions about Social Security since it's not really a "cool" topic but the student asks what will be done to ensure Social Security doesn't go bankrupt:

Professor Obama shows up again to explain what exactly happens in 2018, the year Social Security is set to start taking in less money than is given out. I was pretty happy that the Professor returned because while I had vague knowledge on Social Security, his explanation of the steps he's taking and the problem at hand was really informational.

Bonus Round:

Also in question 7, the announcer, referencing a Nancy Pelosi quote saying that the Tea Party is a false grassroots movement, asks Obama his opinion on the Tea Party.

Obama handles this about as well as I could've expected, saying that the political enthusiasm of the Tea Party is good because the point of the American democracy is to encourage political engagement and that many of the people are genuinely interested. While it's true there are some questionable Tea Party political candidates, anytime a large group of Americans take interest in politics, it's hard for that to be a bad thing.

Double bonus, Obama rails on anonymous corporate ads which are a result of arguably one of the worst Supreme Court decision in Citizens United v. FEC. This decision essentially allows corporations to give as much money as they want in the form of political ads without disclosing who is funding them or what organization they're coming from besides the shady fake corporations that are set up to funnel this money.

Well that's all for the first half, second half recap coming up soon.

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