President Obama Does Take Some Challenging Questions, But Leaves Many Aside
from the too-bad dept
We already noted that President Obama did his Google Hangout today, and surprisingly admitted that patent trolls are a problem. It's worth noting that he did actually get some directly challenging questions, including about gun control, immigration and a lack of transparency (especially on drones). Oh, and also about whether or not we should still have a penny (President Obama: "I don't know!"). That last one was actually the most popular question that people voted on, as compiled by Derek Khanna over at Townhall.com.President Obama more or less avoided the question about drones -- other than to insist that no drones had been used to target people in the US and that the rules were different elsewhere. He also continued to insist that his administration is the most transparent in history, thanks to things like the White House visitor logs being released publicly. That, of course, is just one small part of transparency, and it's clear that the administration is absolutely failing on a number of different transparency issues (and is notably horrible at responding to Freedom of Information Act requests).
What's disappointing, though, is that many of the other top questions in that list didn't get asked (including the question about copyright issues that we'd mentioned, despite being the 8th most popular question by votes). Obviously, there is only a limited amount of time, and I actually think that Obama did a reasonably good job in actually responding to the questions asked with a bit more depth than I expected. It still wasn't that deep, but it wasn't nearly as superficial as I expected. And, at the very least, it gave a chance for him to hear some pointed questions on these issues. Hopefully, he decides to do this more than once a year, so that some of these other questions can actually be asked.
As a side note, I saw some people complain about the final questions which were more "personal" in nature, though I didn't think it was that bad. Yes, perhaps you could argue that it took time away from some of those serious questions, but there is something to be said for at least allowing a bit of personality to come through in these discussions. I thought the most amusing part, though, was that when John Green (of Vlogbrothers and DFTBA Records) asked the President to help name his expected child, the President refused, joking that if they ruled against him it would upset the child for the rest of their life -- but then he did note that they should make sure the child "doesn't forget to be awesome" (which is what DFTBA stands for). Obviously, he was saving up something about DFTBA, but that was still a nice touch.
Thank you for reading this Techdirt post. With so many things competing for everyone’s attention these days, we really appreciate you giving us your time. We work hard every day to put quality content out there for our community.
Techdirt is one of the few remaining truly independent media outlets. We do not have a giant corporation behind us, and we rely heavily on our community to support us, in an age when advertisers are increasingly uninterested in sponsoring small, independent sites — especially a site like ours that is unwilling to pull punches in its reporting and analysis.
While other websites have resorted to paywalls, registration requirements, and increasingly annoying/intrusive advertising, we have always kept Techdirt open and available to anyone. But in order to continue doing so, we need your support. We offer a variety of ways for our readers to support us, from direct donations to special subscriptions and cool merchandise — and every little bit helps. Thank you.
–The Techdirt Team
Filed Under: google hangout, president obama, questions, town hall
Reader Comments
Subscribe: RSS
View by: Time | Thread
Was a bit surprised
A range of things bug me about Obama. Largely revolving door hollywrong sorta stuff and transparency issues. Which he was understandably, evasive about.
That being said, you have to credit the guy for using the medium and connecting with the people.
I frankly sorta enjoyed watching it... Next go round banks and big pharma....
Speaking of banks, but not to derail things... Just caught this blurb of Elizabeth Warren.... its good stuff(hearing 1)
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/02/14/elizabeth-warren-bank-regulators_n_2688998.html
Ni gel
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Could be great for the future if more people, even of those "pre-screened" for political Hangouts, get the courage to ask hard questions.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
"The world spent $1735 billion on war in 2012, it would take $135 billion to totally eradicate poverty. NASAs budget is around half a penny of an individual persons tax dollar Why do we spend so much in war and so little in education and exploration?"
drnickphd, Geelong,Australia
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re:
Interesting, who came up with that number? Sounds ludicrously low if referring to worldwide poverty.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: Re:
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: Re: Re:
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: Re: Re: Re:
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
I sincerely hope that more politicians start to do this sort of thing, and do it more frequently. Right now their perception of the outside world comes almost entirely from lobbyists. Maybe if they talked to the general public more, laws wouldn't be so one-sided. (I can dream, can't I?)
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
I know copyright and IP burns white-hot with readers here, but after hearing him speak; it's no wonder IP reform is way down the list. Our fiscal crisis is an existential one, making just about everything else a joke. I strongly urge everyone to visit his website and learn in very plain terms the threat our country faces. Here it is: http://crfb.org/
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
more dissembling by Masnick
Mere dissembling by thieves! It is not innovation that patents hinder, but the theft of.
�Patent troll�
infringers and their paid puppets� definition of �patent troll�:
anyone who has the nerve to sue us for stealing their invention
Call it what you will...patent hoarder, patent troll, non-practicing entity, shell company, etc. It all means one thing: �we�re using your invention and we�re not going to stop or pay�. This is just dissembling by large invention thieves and their paid puppets to kill any inventor support system. It is purely about legalizing theft. The fact is, many of the large multinationals and their puppets who defame inventors in this way themselves make no products in the US or create any American jobs and it is their continued blatant theft which makes it impossible for the true creators to do so. To them the only patents that are legitimate are their own -if they have any.
It�s about property rights. They should not only be for the rich and powerful. Show me a country with weak or ineffective property rights and I�ll show you a weak economy with high unemployment. Does that remind you of any present day country?
Prior to eBay v Mercexchange, small entities had a viable chance at commercializing their inventions. If the defendant was found guilty, an injunction was most always issued. Then the inventor small entity could enjoy the exclusive use of his invention in commercializing it. Unfortunately, injunctions are often no longer available to small entity inventors because of the Supreme Court decision so we have no fair chance to compete with much larger entities who are now free to use our inventions. Essentially, large infringers now have your gun and all the bullets. Worse yet, inability to commercialize means those same small entities will not be hiring new employees to roll out their products and services. And now those same parties who killed injunctions for small entities and thus blocked their chance at commercializing now complain that small entity inventors are not commercializing. They created the problem and now they want to blame small entities for it. What dissembling! If you don�t like this state of affairs (your unemployment is running out), tell your Congress member. Then maybe we can get some sense back into the patent system with injunctions fully enforceable on all infringers by all patentees, large and small.
Those wishing to help fight big business giveaways should contact us as below and join the fight as we are building a network of inventors and other stakeholders to lobby Congress to restore property rights for all patent owners -large and small.
For the truth about trolls, please see http://truereform.piausa.org/default.html#pt.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]