President Obama launches his online “fireside chat” today at 11:30am EST, answering questions from among the tens of thousands posted directly to the White House website, CNN reports. Some 70,000 questions had been posted by early this morning, the AP reports. More than a million votes have been cast as to which questions the president should address; Obama will answer the most popular ones via live streaming video.
Per the site's instructions, the questions must be related to the economy, though that includes issues tied to the economy, like health care and education. Questioners asked about issues like fighting foreclosure and funding for higher education. “It turns out that the Internet is a new medium of human communication that not only helps you get elected, it changes the way you govern,” says an analyst.
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