OBAMA'S ONLINE TOWN HALL RANGES FROM MARIJUANA TO MENINGITIS

WASHINGTON -- In the first online town hall held in the White House,
President Barack Obama on Thursday mixed wonky policy talk, personal
anecdotes and flashes of humor as he explored a new way to reach
people and advance his agenda.

About 67,000 viewers watched the live webcast on www.whitehouse.gov,
which was also carried by several cable news outlets. Over two days,
92,933 people submitted 104,081 questions, and used the Web tool
Google Moderator to cast 3.6 million votes on which questions the
president should answer.

Obama called the town hall "this experiment we're trying out. I
promised to open up the White House to the American people, and this
event "... marks an important step toward achieving that goal."

The event also had its pitfalls. While online participants were told
the subject was the economy, the White House Web site was inundated
by questions about legalizing marijuana. Prompted by NORML, a group
pushing legalization, thousands logged on to make those questions
some of the most popular.

"I don't know what this says about the online audience," Obama said
with a chuckle. "We want to make sure it was answered. The answer is
no -- I don't think that is a good strategy to grow our economy."

Obama answered only six online questions, and acknowledged that one
of his answers was too long. Then he took six questions from a group
of Washington-area residents -- Advertisement nurses, teachers and
small-business owners -- who gave the event the feel of a traditional
town hall, with Obama using a hand-held mic.

The 75-minute event also played to Obama's strengths, and White House
spokesman Robert Gibbs said later that more online forums would be held.

Citizens offered specific questions about health care or education,
sometimes with a bit of personal history, and Obama discussed how his
agenda could address a problem -- and threw in a bit of his own biography.

Linda Bock, a Maryland nurse, appealed to Obama to include nurses in
negotiations over health care reform because they understand the
needs of patients. The president quickly agreed, and talked about his
7-year-old daughter.

"When Sasha, our little precious pea -- she got meningitis when she
was 3 months old -- very dangerous," Obama recalled. "The doctors did
a terrific job, but frankly it was the nurses that were there with us
when she had to get a spinal tap, and all sorts of things that were
just bringing me to tears."

When "Harriet from Georgia" used her video question to ask when
outsourced jobs would come back, Obama made a pitch for a long-term
investment in "the high-skill, high-wage jobs of the future," such as
building wind turbines and solar panels.

Obama is also testing new ways to sell his $3.6 trillion budget plan,
which includes large expenditures in early-childhood education, clean
energy and health care reform. He told three Ohio students who asked
about national service that just as financially strapped families
make sacrifices to send a child to college, the government must make
long-term investments that add to the deficit.

Families that go deeper into debt for college "understand that making
the investment now will lead to greater opportunity, greater economic
advancement later," he said. "Well, the same thing is true in our economy."

With key votes looming in Congress next week, the White House is
using many methods to get the president's message out. Obama's
powerful online campaign, now called Organizing for America, is
running cable TV ads and urging backers to lobby members of Congress.

The town hall Thursday was reminiscent of the YouTube debates during
the campaign and Obama's creative use of Internet tools. Katie Jacobs
Stanton, who developed online tools for Google, was hired by the
White House as its director of "citizen participation."

In just two days, the town hall got a healthy response for several
reasons. Organizing for America sent an e-mail alert to its list of
12 million-plus, encouraging participation. On Thursday morning,
Google's popular search page had a link to the White House Web site.

Obama wants to hear from people and will get out of Washington when
he can, Gibbs said, but virtual participation means he can "have that
town hall without gassing up the plane."