Obama Holds Online Town Hall (now with full video)

He answered six questions. What a huge waste of time and money.

And it seems a substantial amount of folks on Current consider the legalization of weed to be the most important issue of the times....

Wow. Amazing.....

I love the fact Obama laughed at the type of audience because of so many marijuana questions... He tricked you all, this is -never- going to happen.

Wow! It was like marijuana got honorable mentions.

B.S. Current89 this is exactly the time to bring it up. I voted for this man I want him to deal with this and now. despite what you may believe their are many people that feel very strongly about this topic and many of us are the reason he is in this fucking office.

For the record I was opposed to both of these wars. Also, education, energy, and health care are problems because these same fools who criminalized this plant ignored the real issues that needed their policies. Instead of feeding this fear based money squandering Drug War.

Asking the President whether he supports the legalization of marijuana is inappropriate. The President can't make marijuana legal, that's up to Congress. Furthermore, this isn't the time to be asking that type of question; we are in two wars(soon to be one), climate change is upon us, we have a weakened economy and we have broken international relations.

Additionally, If he did come out in support of it his political clout would tumble, and congress would be less likely to pass his plans on education, energy and health care.

It's called prioritizing.

People act as if everything was so simple, if it was cut and dry, It isn't.

Great he approaches the marijuana question as if we are idiots and losers. I love how they find it so amusing that we have needs, and we voice our opinions and we are still treated as if we are children.

And what was with all the Robots in the audience??

"No longer accepting new questions at this time."

92,933 people have submitted 104,082 questions and cast 3,606,013 votes

http://www.whitehouse.gov/openforquestions/

I do not doubt that this form of interaction could have a posotive outcome if used properly. That said, it seems more like a distraction. Keep your eyes on the town hall meeting and we will be busy behind the scenes implementing our agenda. Many religions use this same form of "meeting", and have been accused of using it as a form of brainwashing. We could debate it, but in the end it will speak for itself. If all that comes from it is a bunch of discussion and no actual fixing of our nations problems then it was obviously a waste of time and money and an insult to the American publics intelligence.

You have said many times that you are not going to run things and make decisions based on personal convictions but based on science and fact. However, in regard to this question of Legalization of Cannabis you did the exact opposite you based your reaction on the unscientific reasoning of our past, on the Reefer Madness propaganda that Cannabis is some how in the league of Heroin or Meth when in Fact it Scientifically has been shown to be more benign than ether of our two most popular legal substances that of tobacco and alcohol. Now I and the millions of others like me are more than willing to accept that you have received misleading information regarding this subject and suggest that you perhaps do some real independent research on your own to see how true my claims are. Regardless of what you come up with know this too, this movement is not some group of 20 somethings sitting around playing X-box and trying to get Cannabis legalized nor is it a bunch of old hippies or any other small or fringe group you can dismiss casually and expect no repercussion for your actions. As I said I voted for you as did many of my fellow Cannabis supporters in this last election and we are a broad spectrum group and we are just as well connected as as any major political movement out there and while I personally would not cut off my nose to spite my face and support the republican agenda I would not hesitate to organize behind a candidate at the next election who will support this agenda and encourage others to do the same in opposition to your re-election. I hope that candidate however is you Mr. Obama because I believe in your idealism and adherence to the principle duties of a president to hear and further the agendas of his fellow citizens.
Thank you for your time and attention,

Mr. President Obama,
Let me begin by saying I have been a supporter of your campaign from the start. I voted for you and actively advocated for you in public and private for your presidency. This may not seem much now as you have the support of so many, but for me it was not something that I did nor have continued to do lightly. I do not easily give my support to any man and once given I am greatly hurt when that support is forgotten or ignored by the person or persons it was given to. I am happy to see you pushing to enact a comprehensive platform that includes education, economic, environmental and health care reform necessary to take us into a profitable future. Which is why it was so very disheartening to see you on a national forum in which 3.5 million of your fellow citizens had written in and voted for the questions asked you that day, that you would so derisively and rudely dismiss a question which has been clearly asked by a majority of them not only on your sight but many others such as Change.org and through many citizen media forums like Current.com/TV. That question, which brought such giggles from you and outright laughter from your little group of onlookers, regarding the Legalization of Marijuana. Let me say here as well that the scientific name for Marijuana is Cannabis as you are an educated man I would think you would wish to address it by its proper name. This substance and its legalization is one that could save the local, state and federal governments billions annually. This savings comes from reduced prison populations due to not having to incarcerate nonviolent offenders who hurt no one with their use of Cannabis. It also has been show by many of your own states to be an incredible source of taxable income California (you know the state going bankrupt) stated they could generate as much as 2 billion from cannabis taxation and that was a low-ball figure. There is not a lot at the moment because the study of cannabis was restricted for so long, but there is profound evidence coming from state sponsored research groups mainly in the states where medical cannabis is legal showing that cannabis is not physically addictive or any where near as harmful as other legal drugs such as the ones you and many of those in you audience who so hypocritically laughed at this question are currently using and are addicted to which include alcohol and tobacco. There is also the issue of the war raging on our border with Mexico that is being fueled in large part by the trafficking of Meth-Amphetamines but also to a lesser degree Cannabis as well. Why not take away at least one part of the Cartels revenue by legalizing, regulating and taxing Cannabis and relieve an overburdened Police and federal drug task force so that they may concentrate on the substance that is truly killing our communities. And last but not least bring the relief to your fellow citizens who use Cannabis for their ills who but for this substance being illegal and on a black market would not have anything to do with the criminals who often try to push harder drugs on us. This all leads to the incarceration of citizens who other wise would have held jobs and paid taxes.

This is a letter I wrote to the president regarding his flippant disregard for the issue put forward not only as a leading question voted for on his site but many others as well asking for the legalization of Cannabis. I am encouraging the many other people who I have read on this site that support this issue of legalization to go to Whithouse.gov and tell the president that we will not be ignored. Feel free to use my letter if you want or better yet write your own and tell him how his dismissal of this important issue made you feel and what you plan to do about it.

this sounds like a job for twitter. everybody's a critic. c'mon everyone submit your input for a better representation of a government for the people by the people! taking it to the street!

he is on the right track.

the whole deal with pot is the stigma that it makes you lazy, which having partaken in the activity I know that it will, depending on the users. as long as it carries this stigma, with obama pushing public services and such, he will never support it's legalization.

he wants people, especially young people, to get out there and get active. so there is no way he's gonna say get high as hell before you go...just not gonna happen.

the struggle continues...

It was just suggested on MSNBC that Obama was "leapfrogging" the press in making direct contact with the general public. I saw it as leveling the playing field by giving everyone, press included, the same information at the same time.
If it made things difficult for the, so called, pundits to interpret his words before he spoke them,...good.
I already know what I heard.

this is why so many young people voted this election and why he won! He comunicates with us in a way we can all understand. LOVE him!

I turned on the Town Hall just in time to see his remarks about marijuana reform and immediately thought this would become a hot topic on Current.

So I have a few comments. Generally, I favor marijuana reform and I think it will happen in my lifetime (I am 23). But given the political climate, for the President of the United States to speak in favor of it would probably (though unfortunately and without good reason) destroy his credibility and political capital.

I would only hope before everyone here criticizes the President, they think realistically. Perhaps Marijuana reform is best kept at the grassroots level until there is more broad consensus.

If the President spent as much time working on solving all the problems he constantly talks about as he does trying to sells his proposed budget....we might actually see some of this change he promised during the campaign. I'm just sayin...

Did anyone else notice that Obama made a reference to his first term?
Most interesting.

so he just dismissively addressed the issue as if it was amusing that the idea of legalizing marijuana would help the economy through taxation.

what was even more disheartening were the (mostly black audience members) douchebags who started clapping as if they were ecstatic about the notion of continuing the absurd laws that encourage the disproportionate mass incarceration of minorities for non-violent possession charges.

i just started watching. Hope they address the legalization of Marijuana.

Another refreshing strategy.
Bypassing the grandstand political posturing that surrounds him by continuing to take it to the people.
The man and his staff fully understand that communication is a two way street by fully utilizing every medium, especially the internet.
I respect and support a leader that wants me directly involved.