Left/Right Bloggers Launch Campaign for More Obama-GOP Question Time

Posted by admin
February 3, 2010

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Last Friday afternoon, President Obama and House Republicans made history. At the GOPers’ issues retreat in Baltimore, the president fielded sharp questions from the Republican legislators on critical issues: health care reform, taxes, the budget, the stimulus, energy, government transparency, earmarks, and other matters. The exchanges, broadcast live on the three cable news networks (with Fox News cutting away in the middle), were substantive and civil. The session — a far cry from the soundbite sallies of conventional political discourse — was gripping to watch. (You can see the video here.) This was indeed change.

On Twitter, journalists and citizens who were viewing the event immediately started sharing their amazement (in 140-character messages). Inevitably, a hashtag was born: #questiontime. This was a reference to the British practice under which the prime minister regularly appears before members of Parliament and answers their queries. (For you non-Twitterers, a hashtag is essentially a subject heading used to group tweets related to a particular, and often popular, topic.) Seeing that others on Twitter were jazzed by this American version of Question Time, I noted in repeated tweets that citizens and journalists should demand regular public and televised encounters between the president and the opposition party. Less than a week later, on this morning, a bipartisan group of bloggers, commentators, politicos and Internet advocates — with a combined readership in the millions — has launched an online campaign urging Obama, GOP House leader John Boehner and Republican Senate leader Mitch McConnell to make Question Time — televised and webcasted — a regular feature of American democracy. You can join this call at DemandQuestionTime.com. Let me tell you how the campaign came together.

 

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admin

This is a great Idea we should do something simular for both houses of congress so the people can hold them accountable as well as questions

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Vote -1 Vote +1admin on February 3, 2010 @ 8:36 am
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