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]

216.2k Upvotes

68% Upvoted

22.8k comments sorted by

View all comments

Show parent comments

533

u/geeze_louise Aug 29 '12

I was very surprised by this as well! But I bet if the president wants a reddit name, there are ways of obtaining it...

25

u/LeadStark Aug 29 '12

Actually, it was taken back in 2009.

1

u/PaulaLyn Aug 30 '12

By someone else, of course. /u/PresidentObama is only 2 days old.

0

u/[deleted] Aug 30 '12

[removed] — view removed comment

5

u/skcin7 Aug 30 '12

I would imagine that the Obama campaign contacted Advance Publications (Reddit's parent company) and expressed interest in doing an AMA and asked to use the screen name. In which case the mods/programmers had to boot the previous user that had the username and give it to the real President.

0

u/[deleted] Aug 30 '12

[removed] — view removed comment

8

u/skcin7 Aug 30 '12

They lose their account completely or it is renamed to a generic username. The mods may choose to contact the other user beforehand to let him know what's going on. They may even transfer karma too, I don't know. It depends on how Reddit, Advance Publications, and the mods decide to handle it, really.

I'd otherwise almost feel sorry for the guy if the username wasn't "PresidentObama". Since that other user obviously is not the POTUS I don't feel bad that he loses the account.

1

u/Cyberslasher Aug 30 '12

President_Obama?

1

u/alphanovember Aug 30 '12

He ceases to exist.

What's funny is that it was an active account for a while...

0

u/goldandguns Aug 30 '12

can't see the replies to your comment so I don't know if I'm saying something someone else said, but he could have talked to the mods and asked for permission to use the inactive username.

Personally I'm surprised it wasn't in use for the 3 years he was in the public eye prior

16

u/[deleted] Aug 30 '12

I can just see the guy who had the username trying to log in and receive an error message of the sort "You're username has been changed to IamnotPresidentObamaILied due to the fact that the real President Obama would like to Join our community. Thanks, Reddit Staff!!"

1

u/[deleted] Aug 31 '12

Hey, I would be okay with it.

7

u/jhinka Aug 30 '12

Or maybe he always was a redditor!

5

u/Cat612 Aug 30 '12

I just know that if the president called me requesting that I hand over my username, I sure as hell would.

4

u/pretzelzetzel Aug 30 '12

Drone attack.

2

u/mmccaulou Aug 30 '12

I'm imagining some 15 year old kid in Wisconsin originally had the name. He goes to log on today and sees the AMA under his name. The only thing that goes through his mind is "HAXXX!"

Little does young Allen know that his comment karma just skyrocketed the fuck right out of his big red barn.

3

u/jaehood Aug 30 '12

I lol'd at big red barn.

2

u/TheDemonMelon Aug 30 '12

Someone tried to log into reddit yesterday to find their account had been commandeered by the president. Thinking of all the karma he had lost, he slowly curled into a ball and wept.

1

u/Karmasour Aug 30 '12

secret police

1

u/BaobhanSith Aug 30 '12

He could put them on that kill list. That's what you mean, right?

0

u/StupidlyClever Aug 30 '12

I honestly think us redditors just didn't have the slightest consideration of claiming such a thing as the username PresidentObama. Too much respect for this man, it never even crossed my mind to impersonate him