President Barack Obama faced a serious of questions Wednesday delivered to him via the social networking site Twitter in what was billed as “The Twitter Town Hall.”
After opening the event by sending a live Tweet from a laptop bearing the Presidential seal, Obama was asked “What mistakes have you made in handling this recession and what would you do differently?”
In response, the President said that he failed to recognize the magnitude of the recession, and as a result didn’t convey to the public how long recovery would take.
In addition, Obama cited housing, explaining that his administration has had to revamp their program multiple times after the market failed to bottom out when they expected.
Other topics ranged from the ongoing negotiations over the debt ceiling to the future of the manned space program. At one point, the President even received a question from House Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio), who Tweeted his signature “where are the jobs?” slogan.
“This is a slightly skewed question,” Obama mused, before adding that while job growth isn’t keeping pace with the need, his administration has taken a number of steps, including tax cuts for small businesses and individuals’ pay roll.
The event was moderated by Twitter co-founder Jack Dorsey and attended by 140 guests, a nod to the character limit the site places on its posts. The White House reported that as of Wednesday afternoon, there were over 60,000 Tweets directly addressing the event.