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Shallow Nation

March 26th, 2009 at 1:57 pm

Obama Online Town Hall Video, Photos 3-26-09

President Obama online town hall March 26, 2009

President Barack Obama held the first ever online town hall at the White House on March 26, 2009. See video, transcript and photos here.

The town hall meeting was streamed live online on the Internet and carried on some cable networks live. Prior to the event, the White House Web site had allowed people to submit questions.

The town hall meeting is one of several high profile, headline making events, following closely upon the Presidential prime time press conference on March 24, 2009 as well as several television appearances President Obama has made in recent days including CBS 60 Minutes and The Tonight Show with Jay Leno, (as the first sitting President ever to appear on the late night talk show).

While continuing to present the administration’s plans for fostering economic recovery, President Obama also faces the challenge of pressing Congress to approve his proposed $3.55-trillion federal budget which, while allocating spending in various areas including health care, energy, and education also will create a budget deficit of more than $1 trillion.

Many questions focused on the economy, health care, education, home mortgages and the auto industry. Surprisingly, a popular question (that received the most votes online) had to do with the legalization marijuana and whether that might help stimulate the economy. The question elicited laughter from the audience and the President who said, ‘I don’t think that is a good strategy to grow our economy.’

In talking about health care, President Obama shared personal stories, of his daughter Sasha’s hospitalization at three months when she suffered from meningitis. He noted the importance of the nurses in her care and recovery. “You know, the doctors did a terrific job, but the nurses were there with us when she had to get a spinal tap and all sorts of things that were just bringing me to tears,” he said.

In his second book, “Audacity of Hope,” Obama used Sasha’s hospitalization as an example of the need for affordable and universal health care.

“I still shudder when I think of those three days; how my world narrowed to a single point, and how I was not interested in anything or anybody outside the four walls of that hospital room — not my work, not my schedule, not my future,” he wrote.

Source: Obama Discusses Daughter’s Hospitalization In Online Town Hall

He also shared the story of his mother’s diagnosis of ovarian cancer when she was 53 and her death six months later, noting that she was an independent contractor at the time and nearly lost her health care benefits as insurance companies tried to assert it was a preexisting condition (because it is a cancer difficult to diagnosis at an early stage). “I still remember watching her — you know, she’s sick, she’s going through chemotherapy, and she’s on the phone arguing with insurance companies. And she’s lucky she had insurance,” he said.