Unfortunately, although questions about marijuana and drug policy were among the top vote-getters in many categories, YouTube officials opted not to ask the president about the topic.
It is of course disappointing that, despite the obvious interest many voters have in hearing the president talk about drug policy, that none of the high-scoring questions about it got through. But if the president does sit down more regularly to answer questions from voters, as he suggested today that he would like to do, citizens are sure to keep submitting drug policy questions that they want answered and YouTube will probably feel increasingly pressured to actually bring the subject up with the president.
Still, if YouTube does eventually present President Obama with a marijuana or drug policy question one of these days, let's just hope that he doesn't laugh it off like he did last few times he was asked about the issue.
After all, polls are increasingly showing that the public takes this issue very seriously. Our elected officials should, too.
I think it's too early for the benefit to outweigh the political fallout. That may not be the case in four years though.
ReplyDeleteI'm not exactly clear on whether this was a decision by YouTube to shield the President, or if the Obama people helped select which topics would be covered before the interview began. My guess is it's the latter.
ReplyDeleteWhat I'm hoping is that Obama leanred a bit of a lesson from his quips about the "online community" last year. Perhaps he realized that blindly staying in line with the prohibitionists opens him up to just as much criticism as being labeled "soft on drugs" might. This obviously still leaves drug policy in that "political third rail" category, which is unfortunate. But hopefully politicians are starting to feel just as much heat when they dismiss these concerns as they feel when they are labeled "soft on drugs" or whatever.
For whatever it's worth, YouTube has stated, and it has been widely reported, that the White House did not have any involvement in selecting the questions.
ReplyDeleteYouTube is out of line then, what will the end prohibition crowd do about it?
ReplyDeleteWhat all Pro prohibition entities don't understand is that we're not going to shut up nor stop. We have momentum and I really don't believe that there's anything that'll stop us now.
If this was a decision by YouTube, what inbox can we inundate with emails?
ReplyDeleteyou can go here and leave your comments at youtube...http://youtube-global.blogspot.com/2010/02/your-questions-for-president-obama.html
ReplyDelete