Apparently President Obama’s town hall questioners weren’t random citizens after all. Guess he figured what worked so well for President Bush would work for him too.
But while the online question portion of the White House town hall was open to any member of the public with an Internet connection, the five fully identified questioners called on randomly by the president in the East Room were anything but a diverse lot. They included: a member of the pro-Obama Service Employees International Union, a member of the Democratic National Committee who campaigned for Obama among Hispanics during the primary; a former Democratic candidate for Virginia state delegate who endorsed Obama last fall in an op-ed in the Fredericksburg Free Lance-Star; and a Virginia businessman who was a donor to Obama’s campaign in 2008.
Would it have been that much trouble to find a non-campaign person to ask him a question or two? Maybe President Obama is afraid of hearing from the average person right about now. I would be if I had to answer questions from the press and the public about the current economic policies of his administration.