President Obama held a unique “online town-hall” today, answering questions submitted and voted on at WhiteHouse.gov. An aide acted as a moderator, calling it a “new experiment in getting questions from outside Washington.” The questions ran the gamut from education to the economy to health care, with the highest vote-getters in each category being asked, the Chicago Tribune reports.
Asked how regular mortgage-holders would benefit from his rescue plans, Obama advised homeowners to refinance at the historically low rates. Asked when outsourced jobs would return to the US, he answered frankly that most low-wage jobs wouldn’t. Obama also paused to answer the Internet’s favorite question: whether he thought legalizing marijuana was a good plan. “I don’t know what this says about the online audience,” he joked. “I don’t think that is a good strategy.” (More Barack Obama stories.)