Online Town Hall the First Step

For those of you who missed this, President Obama held his first online town hall meeting today and it was broadcast live on whitehouse.gov. According to the White House, almost 93,000 people submitted more than 104,000 questions, which the public voted on.

Given the limited advance notice and the estimated 67,000 people who tuned in, we would have to declare the event a success, with a few caveats.First, it's not quite clear that the questions asked were the ones that received the most votes, especially since at least two of the questions Obama answered came via Internet video. However, the questions that were asked stuck pretty closely to the topics that were most popular online: education, health care, outsourcing and legalizing marijuana.

In many ways the event unfolded like a traditional campaign stop, with the president responding to the public's questions at length and sticking to his talking points on the issues. Things improved a bit when Obama started taking questions from the audience, which forced him to answer their questions more directly. He told a Michigan native that he would be releasing an extensive plan to help the auto industry in coming days and revealed that he "really likes nurses." (No idea how audience members were chosen or whether he knew their questions in advance.)

Still, the fact Obama even addressed questions from online voters is a huge step forward in terms of granting access to regular citizens. While a cynic could argue that the online format is somewhat easier to navigate than a traditional press conference, with its absence of combative reporters and follow-up questions, just the image of Obama allowing regular people to question him on his policies makes him seem like he has less to hide than previous presidents. The fact the exchange was broadcast live for all to see only enhances that.

Hopefully today's event was only the first step in what will be a continuous engagement between the administration and citizens. Perhaps the White House should take a lesson from the more than 3.6 million votes cast and start allowing citizens to weigh in on legislation before Obama signs it, as promised during the campaign.