Barack Obama knows that if he wants to be re-elected President, he needs to re-engage with young constituencies -- which is what he was attempting to do today when he held an a live, online chat session. Just to prove how hip he is, he calls the session a "hangout." Pretty much the 2012 version of the Fireside Chats.
But the Hangout has ended up being overrun by a bunch of whipper-snappers who wanted to take the Hangout, like, totally far out.
The masses were invited to submit YouTube questions following up on issues raised during Obama's State of the Union speech, but thanks to a little basic organizing from marijuana proponents, 18 of the 20 most popular questions posed to Obama are related to marijuana policy, CBS reports. In other words, in the President's plan to connect with younger audiences backfired when younger audiences ended up centering the conversation around things they actually care about.
When Obama's past online chat sessions were dominated by marijuana activists, the President still avoided the issue, which he is likely to do when the session is streamed today at 5:30 p.m. eastern time.
A poll showed last fall that 50 percent of Americans now favor legalization, against just 46 percent who oppose, but the issue is still too politically risky for politicians to confront. As Newt "Spaceman" Gingrich reminded us this week, you don't get very far during a recession when you trumpet causes that Americans see as tangential to the nation's economic recovery.
Perhaps if Obama wins a second term and doesn't have to worry about re-election, he'll become more apt to take serious questions about drug policy. Or perhaps it will remain the biggest national issue that is not addressed by any single serious politician in any serious way.
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Follow Bison Messink on Twitter: @BisonMessink
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