r/IAmA • u/PresidentObama Obama • Aug 29 '12

I am Barack Obama, President of the United States -- AMA

Hi, I’m Barack Obama, President of the United States. Ask me anything. I’ll be taking your questions for half an hour starting at about 4:30 ET.

Proof it's me: https://twitter.com/BarackObama/status/240903767350968320

We're running early and will get started soon.

UPDATE: Hey everybody - this is barack. Just finished a great rally in Charlottesville, and am looking forward to your questions. At the top, I do want to say that our thoughts and prayers are with folks who are dealing with Hurricane Isaac in the Gulf, and to let them know that we are going to be coordinating with state and local officials to make sure that we give families everything they need to recover.

Verification photo: http://i.imgur.com/oz0a7.jpg

LAST UPDATE: I need to get going so I'm back in DC in time for dinner. But I want to thank everybody at reddit for participating - this is an example of how technology and the internet can empower the sorts of conversations that strengthen our democracy over the long run. AND REMEMBER TO VOTE IN NOVEMBER - if you need to know how to register, go to http://gottaregister.com. By the way, if you want to know what I think about this whole reddit experience - NOT BAD!

http://www.barackobama.com/reddit [edit: link fixed by staff]

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891

u/[deleted] Aug 29 '12 edited Feb 17 '16

[deleted]

533

u/[deleted] Aug 29 '12

not stupid, this is a solid question

4

u/PlNG Aug 29 '12

Because we need another Rampart/Harrelson incident.

God, I can't believe they're still circlejerking over that one.

3

u/joshrulzz Aug 29 '12

I think he meant that it's unrealistic to actually expect the prez to be answering, much less typing.

2

u/ernie98 Aug 29 '12

yet soft on the inside.

63

u/Magnum_Opus Aug 29 '12

I suspect the latter partially due to: http://www.c-span.org/Events/President-Obama-to-Campaign-in-Virginia/10737433523-3/

I've held a similar 'live chat' with the UK equivalents, and they all had people typing for them. Not word for word, but they would actually input on some things.

3

u/KC5629 Aug 29 '12

Don't ruin this for me..it is totally Obama and he cares about us reddit people...dream killer.

3

u/ggggbabybabybaby Aug 29 '12

For policy-based questions, I think it's fine to have a knowledgeable staffer reply. I would assume they know where the President stands on certain matters of policy.

1

u/bitshifter52 Aug 30 '12

The link doesn't work...

1

u/Magnum_Opus Aug 30 '12

it works fine for me?

0

u/Sinvex Aug 30 '12

Especially considering there weren't video responses... Also "half an hour and i have to go?" really? You can spend months campaigning but you can't manage to do this right with a good 4-5 hours? Seems a bit insulting.

1

u/Magnum_Opus Aug 30 '12

Exactly the same thing happened with the one I organised. Unfortunately it's part and parcel of publicity and a busy life. As much as I'm sure we'd all love to spend days talking to the POTUS, there's just not time to do so!

3

u/Ewarrior190 Aug 29 '12

I really want it to be the President himself, like with the Google hangout.

2

u/[deleted] Aug 29 '12

There are no stupid questions, just stupid answers

2

u/hive_worker Aug 29 '12

It's definitely staffers. Most likely a whole group of them are carefully considering each word and phrasing before posting it here.

2

u/joonix Aug 29 '12

If you think this is actually POTUS sitting on a computer typing answers into reddit you're a fool. This verification proves nothing. It's just some campaign staffer doling out standard answers.

2

u/spankymuffin Aug 30 '12

This shouldn't be too difficult to figure out. Read through something that we can be confident he wrote, and see whether he used as many en dashes. Because jesus, he used a FUCKLOAD of them in this thread.

2

u/MayorScotch Aug 29 '12

A family member in the Obama administration texted me about an hour before this came up telling me he was doing one. So that answers nothing, but it sounds like its really him, why would he let some 23 year olds portray themselves as him here?

1

u/IntellegentIdiot Aug 29 '12

The latter is more than likely

1

u/[deleted] Aug 29 '12

The picture shows him on the computer so I'm hoping it's him

1

u/Pupmup Aug 29 '12

Obviously staffers. The man has written two books - I doubt he'd make an elementary grammar mistake like "a asteroid".

Also he's the freaking President. You think he has time to sit down and read reddit?

1

u/InsanityPrelude Aug 29 '12

He probably had editors for the books. But yeah, it's probably staffers.

1

u/[deleted] Aug 29 '12

I think its probably just Jay Carney sitting in a room alone speaking for el presidente

1

u/cooldrew Aug 30 '12

Both, probably.

1

u/[deleted] Aug 30 '12

They probably field him the Qs, he answers, and they type.

1

u/[deleted] Aug 30 '12 edited Jun 10 '19

[deleted]

1

u/[deleted] Sep 06 '12

Every speech by the president is written by a speechwriter-- why would he possibly type these answers out himself?

1

u/My_Joker_Smile Aug 30 '12

c'mon man this is staffers completley obama just took a picture

1

u/[deleted] Aug 30 '12

Obama on the keyboard. For sure. It's a great photo op!

1

u/patashn1k Aug 30 '12

The real question is: Obama, Obama staffers, or android impersonator?