
Ask President Barack Obama anything on Reddit (seriously) - azat_co
http://venturebeat.com/2012/08/29/ask-president-barack-obama-anything-on-reddit-seriously/
======
pixelcort
Link to actual AMA:
[http://www.reddit.com/r/IAmA/comments/z1c9z/i_am_barack_obam...](http://www.reddit.com/r/IAmA/comments/z1c9z/i_am_barack_obama_president_of_the_united_states/)

Reddit's ops team is going to have a fun day today. (Link's down as I post
this.)

------
jeffool
There's already a thread above this one on the main page, and it actually
links to the AMA: <http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=4450803>

------
Selfcommit
As stated in the reddit thread... He's currently out and about in Virginia -
So this is a staffer pretending to be him.

Sad.

~~~
grecy
As stated in the top of the thread:

"UPDATE: Hey everybody - this is barack. Just finished a great rally in
Charlottesville"

So he's doing it while on the road.

This pic shows he's obviously in some kind of temp office/building:
<http://i.imgur.com/oz0a7.jpg>

~~~
betterth
I just realized that they covered that Macbook's Apple symbol with a Reddit
alien.

Chances of this being a staffers computer...rising. But then again, AllThingsD
has an email from Alexis (admin) that says that this has apparently been
floated for years and they were notified before hand.
[http://allthingsd.com/20120829/how-reddit-got-obama-there-
ar...](http://allthingsd.com/20120829/how-reddit-got-obama-there-are-quite-a-
few-redditors-at-1600-pennsylvania-ave/)

~~~
smartician
Is it possible that someone from Reddit was on site and set up the "office"
and everything, provided the Macbook with the Reddit alien, to make sure the
POTUS would have a smooth Reddit experience? I doubt this was a spontaneous
thing.

If it was a staffer, he must be very good at impersonation, the style of the
answers was VERY close to Obama's unscripted Q&A sessions.

------
baggachipz
All questions have to be about Rampart.

------
bersius
I've never seen so many positive up-votes before. What do you think of this as
a move? Do you think it makes him accesible or will it be seen as pandering?

~~~
smallblacksun
I'm pretty sure the vast majority of Americans on reddit were already going to
vote for him, and that it will have virtually no impact on anyone who doesn't
use reddit.

~~~
philhippus
I'm pretty sure the vast majority of Americans ... were already going to vote
for him. Is the other guy remotely viable? Really?

Edit: a guy from Europe's viewpoint.

~~~
jebblue
Is Obama viable after a failed 4 years?

Your comment is maybe from a European with your own viewpoint.

~~~
ralfd
Outsiders often have a valuable viewpoint on other groups, because they are
not emotionally invested.

Bush was always ridiculed and seen as stupid in German media. The US should be
proud that Obama is seen as intelligent and that his word carries weight. (And
Romney had a bad start with his remarks in the UK about the Olympics.)

I also remember the doomsday mood 2008 about the economy. It bordered somewhat
on the brink of a depression. I think the administration handled that very
well! And as practically every other industrialized country has universal
health care the struggle in the US about that is baffling. On the other side
the Republicans were obstructing so much important stuff! I remember the
shenanigans about the debt ceiling. I wish they would be punished with an
election loss for their irresponsibility to the world and the American nation.

~~~
jebblue
>> Outsiders often have a valuable viewpoint on other groups, because they are
not emotionally invested.\

I wasn't discounting outsider's opinions, I've traveled the world several
times, America is great because we are all outsiders. I was addressing the
nature of his comment which sounded to me like he was intending to represent
all Europeans, rather than a European expressing his view.

Bush should have acted sooner to restrict the door Clinton opened which
allowed many people to get loans who had not the finances nor shown the
responsibility to own a home.

If common sense regulation should be required of big banks and "wall street";
then we should require it of ourselves as individuals.

------
willpearse
I can't even load the page, so... "was bubble sort the wrong way to go?" ...I
hate myself a little.

------
amanvir
I hope Reddit follows up with a blog post on how they handled the load and how
it affected the amount of new sign-ups

~~~
BHSPitMonkey
They didn't. I spent an hour and a half just refreshing the page and only ever
saw "Reddit is under heavy load..."

