I just laughed so fucking hard.

He's the president, he knows everything... Like Jesus.

I am a Canadian.... Just want to say that George Bush took 8 years to wreck your country... You should give Obama 8 to fix it....

Holy- I didn't think about it like that until you pointed it out.

… his staffers do, anyway. Did you see the ‘meme’ on Obama’s campaign site: “Is president of the USA” / “does AMA” — oh, wow, they sure got ‘that internet thing’ figured out.

I was kicking myself for being so late to the party on this. At first I was like "Bloody hell, Obama's actually done an AMA". Then "Blimey, he's actually answering the questions without the political sidestep." Then I saw that bit and finally understood why I, for the first time ever, wish Britain's parliament were run by USA's president.

[deleted]

Mind = Blown

I thought it was weird that he said that! Now I get it! Hahaha

Man, hilarious.

http://i.imgur.com/YBbs1dt.gif

does anyone else see this as proof that he wasn't the one typing?

I'm actually surprised he was able to answer any questions after breaking Reddit.

Not to mention the site issues. It still took me a while to get to this post hours after it was supposed to have finished.

I suspect that, of all people on the planet, the POTUS has the tighest managed schedule. I'm sure his handlers are like pitbulls regarding his access, scheduling, and keeping him on time for his next appointment.

There are dignitaries of foreign countries that would be willing to give a small fortune to get 30 minutes with POTUS, instead he decided to hang out with us on a website where the main draw is cat pictures and ridiculous memes.

Were you here? reddit was crashing. Considering some actors/famous people only stick around for 1hour and give 1line answers Im surprised we got 10 proper answers and a good solid 30min. Im sure the POTUS has other important matters to attend to!

Heck I couldn't even post anything from the lack of service and then reddit went into read-only anyway. :s

I'm just surprised no one had taken the name "PresidentObama"

But have you heard of his new movie Rampart?

This seems appropriate.

MFW half of the upvotes just disappeared, what the hell?

Leave it to some jerk to hog the time.

I wish he would have had more time, but in this case, I suppose it's understandable: his calendar probably never lets up

Site was crashed or some shit ad I have learned from just logging in.

His PR guys did the rest.

The OP delivered.

At least they were pretty good questions.

He sure kissed a lot of babies and shook a lot of hands...

I know he is a busy man, but still I was hoping for more answers....

Looks like 30 minutes of lies to me

oddly enough most of them involved weed.

And it feels so good!

It was definite maybe with lots of non committal support when practical.

You have no idea how happy this made me. Plus, I got the Top Comment trophy... and on the Obama AMA.

The fact alone that a president even came to reddit is mind boggling to me.

only on reddit: the goddamn president of the united states, "leader of the free world", takes thirty minutes out of running the fucking country, and people bitch about the questions he answered.

edit: "leader of the free world" now in irony quotes.

[deleted]

The motherfucking president took time out of his day to answer our questions--most of them he answered were thoughtful and fairly candid. What in the ever-living fuck do you want from the man?

He answered the top ones. If you didn't want the soft ones, maybe you should have upvoted the hard ones, dingus.

I'm pretty happy with this one:

What are you going to do to end the corrupting influence of money in politics during your second term?

I wish you were the president, you would run it MUCH better than Obama!

You seriously think he has time to answer the harder ones? He had 30 minutes!

How many questions would he have had time to answer if he tackled the heavy questions about his policies? Maybe 3-4?

He answered "What was the most difficult decision you had to make during this term?"

How is that a soft question?

Never put anything super-controversial in writing.

What do you expect in 30 minutes?

He even gave the Softest Answers.

I do not believe anything I heard, and only half of what I saw.

Did you expect anything less from the reddit community? As a whole this bunch isn't very critical of the Dem party

Edit: of course downvote rather than explain why you disagree.

we all know these were loaded questions

Pitch underhanded, please.

I know, right? I mean, soft questions are good for building rapport, but I feel like there were too many soft questions asked, which wasted valuable time.

The child comments won't even load so I don't know if I'm echoing someone else's sentiment but those questions were pure canned responses (I think he did riff off the 'basketball and beer' questions...ughhh). This could have been the greatest AMA ever. People could have had their voice heard. Should have had people upvote top ten questions the day before then he'd answer them today. Of course he wouldn't do that though.

It's all political posturing for the upcoming election. I'm so disappointed and I'm not even American (Canadian).

That was upvoted after he finished questions, he was only answering for 30 minutes. I didn't see that question anywhere around 5:00, so I doubt he really saw it plus the massive downtime we had during that time.

EDIT: Well to be fair, it was hard to see any fucking question between 4:30 and 5:00, because of the reddit error page.

It's smart of him to stay quiet on the issue, especially out to the public, like in this AMA. No matter what side he took, there'd be a shitstorm that could really hurt his chances of reelection.

I was on this page during the 30 minutes that he was answering questions.

50% of the time I got a "reddit is down" page, and 40% of the time I got to the AMA but it was locked down in read-only mode from high traffic.

I'm honestly surprised that Obama was able to answer any questions at all. It's guaranteed that he must have run into the "reddit is down" page a few times.

[deleted]

Apparently 13,000+ redditors dislike convenient answer summaries. I've seen this done on multiple AMAs and I always appreciated it. I thought I might lend a hand.

Edit: And now I know of Reddit's fancy algorithm which lessens my karma. :(

Said "what the hell is wrong with this guy?" Looked at username. Oh.

LIVE THREAD LIVE

Your name, I love it

Agreed — like it or not, you can have the best platform out there but without money nobody will ever know about it.

I keep hearing from people that campaign finance reform is their #1 issue. And then those people know nothing about the DISCLOSE Act or who was for and who was against Citizens.

Citizens was 5 conservative justices for over 4 liberal justices against. In 2010, when Democrats supposedly had a supermajority in the Senate (a blatant lie from the right, they never had a supermajority) every Republican Senator stood against the DISCLOSE Act while every Democratic Senator supported it.

tl;dr If you care about getting money out of politics, you vote straight Democrat.

While it might just be wishful thinking... I really hope that as long as there is such a large disparity of wealth in this country as many like to complain about the influence of money on elections will not be the defining change. Think about it.... if all this money really is flowing in through the super wealthy upper class far right (as I'm sure Reddit believes) and it truly supports their agenda they will still be outnumbered. Even if they spend their entire fortune trying to influence the larger lower class they will still not command as many votes... right? I guess this idea would depend on people voting in accordance with their wealth and not beliefs. Rich v Poor instead of D v R

"0 fucks given"

Sincerely, The Supreme Court

"ps dolla dolla bills y'all!"

I'm pretty excited that that was his answer. Go Obama

If it's not fixed, then what we have on our hands is the privatization of politics. That's a no-no!

Hi, are you related to John Glynn?

You idiot! You answered a question for the president before the president did! Run!

The fact that this reply had more upvotes than the President's.... damn.

Just wanted to chime in and say that I agree wholeheartedly, behind every issue there is someone willing to throw money at it.

I like how you assume he's going to win. :)

Laws about laws about laws are even more important.

Mr President,

This is quite possibly the most important issue in American history. The way our voting system works today means that only those with the most money get their voice heard, and those who can't pander to the large spenders will not. The only way to truly fix the election system is for PUBLICLY FUNDED ELECTIONS. Elections should not be about who is best at gathering money, but who has the opinions and goals that he people want, these two are not, and should not be one in the same. ANY donation should be considered a bribe. All candidates should get EQUAL air time, all candidates should get EQUAL money to spend as they will on advertisements and their campaign, all candidates should have an EQUAL chance to be heard across the nation, regardless of how rich they are, or their friends. The only way to have a true representative democracy is through a system like this. Until this happens money will always influence elections in a way that is NOT beneficial to the people. How can the people EVER trust their government knowing they are constantly taking bribes from the wealthy. Fix this ONE issue and 90% of the other issues about corruption will slowly fade away. I implore you, PLEASE do something about this! Simply creating some minor law about capping donations and such is simply not enough.

I don't know if you will even see this as this conversation is already over, but one can only hope...

The Disclose Act is insufficient. I urge you to support Rep. John Dingel's Restoring Confidence in Our Democracy Act. It is based on Lawrence Lessig's idea of how the the government might circumvent the Citizen's United ruling without requiring a constitutional amendment. Surely it is more likely that Congress would pass a bill of this kind than it is that we ratify a constitutional amendment.

I enthusiastically supported you in '08 but am lukewarm on you now. Support for the Restoring Confidence in Our Democracy Act would be a strong sign that you are serious about reforming the influence of special interests, an issue that I (and I think many others) believe is the single most important issue facing our country. Despite my disagreements with your administration, campaigning for this bill would guarantee my support for your reelection.

who is giving to whom*

This first sentence verifies that Obama himself very likely wrote this because, like most individuals who learned how to write in law school--and I speak from personal experience--he is not averse to writing unnecessarily long sentences while he could just as easily separate smaller sentences by periods; but rather, he chose to use the kind of long, grammatically correct, paragraph-length sentences that many in our profession are likewise prone to employ.

I was going to be snarky, but that's actually a really impressive roadmap to addressing the current lunacy of campaign financing. It's realistic in how much can be changed and how quickly it can happen, while still laying out a plan to push for the end-goal of overturning Citizens United.

How do you explain your use of Super PACs?

Here's a talking point which I have seldom heard used (this is for the President's interns to read, if they're on-the-ball enough to go through this thread later on for analysis and to get a feel of what the internet thinks):

America was founded on the idea of: "one (wo)man, one vote". If, however, we allow money into that equation, if we allow money to unduly impact the political process, we are effectively allowing richer people to have more impactinto that process. We are effectively letting a rich person have more votes. Then the saying becomes: "one (wo)man plus their money, one vote". And that is something a republic cannot allow.

Are you familiar with Lawrence Lessig's rootstrikers' movement and its specific strategy to remove the influence of money in politics? He outlined it in more detail in his recent book titled Republic, Lost.

Do you agree or disagree with his ideas? Would you be interested in making them part of the national conversation?

How come you supported ndaa ?

We need to start with passing the Disclose Act that is already written and been sponsored in Congress - to at least force disclosure of who is giving to who.

force disclosire of who is giving to whom.

Edit: *disclosure. Thanks, DL!

Again, bullshit. You, yourself, are a happy recipient of multi-millions of super-pac dollars. "We need to seriously consider..." is politi-speak for "I'll give it lip service to please you, but don't expect me to do anything about it because it benefits me."

Good luck!

I'm reading all of this in your voice and I realize how great it is. You should do cartoons or some kind of voice acting.

Why dont you just push for term limits for every elected official? That way people will still have the ability to voice their opinions, but will have less incentive to throw large amounts of money at each candidate.

Mr. President, I have heard Burton (Head of one of your Pacs) say the same thing on CNN, yet refuse to release names of donors. While at the same time Burton was trying to beat up on Romney super pacs to release names of donors? Ironically, The Romney Pac Representative on CNN actually was disclosing the names of donors, but Burton would only mention a Karl Rove Super Pac.

Why not lead on this issue?

On this same issue, I understand that you are not suppose to coordinate with the PACs. But I don't understand how your top white house officials appear at the fundraising events for the PACs?

Much appreciation for your response.

This is awesome.

In montana, we had a proud tradition of limiting money's influence in politics. It literally broke hearts when SCOTUS overturned our tradition.

You promised you would not accept money from Super PACs as a Presidential candidate, yet now you do so in vast quantities, please explain this striking dichotomy. http://news.investors.com/article/600446/201202071903/obama-takes-super-pac-money-after-all.htm

Mr. President... can I please have some money?

..."force disclosure of who is giving to whom"

who is giving to whom**

Thanks to the shut down, I'm just getting a look at all this and I'm hugely disappointed that Obama is neither being taken to task on this subject nor is he admitting his faults on the issue. Remember Obama came in with record setting funding and broken campaign funding promises. There was record setting TV coverage and air time. There were campaign "firsts" like national prime time infomercials, net usage, and the creation of small TV networks with constant campaigning broadcasts. There was more money in the Obama campaign then in any other in campaign history. Obama has not helped this issue nor will he be the man to do so in his presidency.

Yeah says the president who takes in millions from corporations.

Thank you sir.

to whom*

to at least force disclosure of who is giving to whom.

FTFY Mr. President.

This is the sort of thing that makes me one of your supporters, Mr. President. Nobody knows how to "end the corrupting influence of money" -- you don't pretend to, which is honest since we've been struggling with it for generations -- but you have a good idea about where to start.

To me, your attitude sounds similar to the ideas behind health care reform. It didn't fix all our problems, but it's already saving and improving lives.

A constitutional amendment to overturn Citizens United would be awesome.

With all due respect that wasnt the question. He asked what were you going to do about it in your second term. You answered a completly different question.

MFW

Translation: Nothing.

The longer we wait the worse it will get. Right now money talks. People were garenteed FREE speech. How is that possible if money IS legally speech? People with less money have less of a voice. This is nothing new, but Citizens United makes it all that more apparent. The Disclose Act I not enough.

Constitutional amendment? That process would be so long and difficult. Is that really our best option?

Please do something about this! I've talked to many fellow citizens about this, and we all feel almost hopeless about our political process. We feel that what we want doesn't matter, and that money wins in the end. This is the biggest issue I've had with our political system.

The Supreme Court essentially said in June that they have no intentions of revisiting it with their Per Curiam decision in June.

Great answer.

A corporation can't die for a country nor should it have a vote. If a person in a corporation wishes to donate let them use their own money or explain to employees why they are removing finances.

I absolutely support an amendment to overturn the Citizens United decision.

This is a movement I can stand behind.

Thank you for taking your time to reply. How do you feel about our entire global oil supply being farmed and depleted for the profit of a few? And how it seems to prevent the development of more efficient and cleaner sources of energy, simply because they are not profitable. When will the government step in before all the oil is gone? We need oil for tyres and plastics and we will not able to produce many of the things we need when it has all been burned as fuel.

This is music to my ears. Until this happens, we should at least consider an amendment to rename Citizens United to reflect its true impact. "Billionaires Gone Wild?"

Would the house allow that bill onto the floor? Will the senate not fillabuster the bill to death?

Citizens United determined that the First Amendment prohibits the government from restricting independent political expenditures by corporations and unions. Then it stands to reason that if donations and expenditures are protected as a form of expression, then certain people, unions, or corporations can express themselves more than others. Unequal access to self-expression seems to me to be very un-American. How can we help in this process to overturn Citizens United?

TL;DR How can we help in this process to overturn Citizens United?

Thank you so much for giving us an opportunity to talk with you today, Mr. President. Hopefully this becomes a lesson how to get support. Be available and don't just try and smear the other guy.

How do you feel about the influence of money in Congress itself Mr. President? I know many are concerned about the lobbying industry's heavy sway (e.g. the oil and gas industries, entertainment companies, etc.)

OH no, this comment has 666 upvotes. Here we go with the anti-christ comments...

As an Australian, it seems to me that your congress is often a large part of the problem - along with lobbyists.

Is there anything you are currently doing to start the process of amending the constitution to overwrite citizens united? If so can you give some specifics on what you have done? Thank you for this opportunity.

Dear Mr. President,

I believe you are in a truly unique position to make a different - you will no longer be worried about getting re-elected (after your second term). To bring down corruption and injustice, one often faces exile (case and point, NYPD in the 1970s) and this in your case would matter most if you were running for a second term - this will be your second term. You can afford to burn bridges with other politicians, doing what you know is right.

It is difficult to fight injustice within a system when you are at the bottom "yelling" (which is often inferred as complaining) at the top. A classic example is the poor complaining about inadequacy to the rich - although I agree with this sediment - the true way to handle change and a reformation is by getting to the top of the system then point out areas of reform. This is what I see Warren Buffet doing; a true american/human hero. Your unique position provides you with this similar opportunity, you have used the system as what you must, used it to make a change for the better. But now, you can change the system to no longer be so reliant on capital and the machine of making money, and forward this so it is contingent more of what ones true beliefs and values are.

I would say this is the single most important issue that you could do: restore the United States to a true Democracy. A vote is a vote and a dollar is a dollar. The second term for the president is a true time when they can do more of what they want and the worries the of their constituents have no warrant, and should simply rely on their inner since of right and wrong. I believe you have a good baring on your ethical compass.

Hope you read this (or at least the TL;DR hahe), DaGrN8

TL;DR: Second term, don't need to worry about getting re-elected, has opportunity to make a true change.

It seems unlikely that Congress would pass the Disclose Act; can you bypass this via executive order?

I'm really hopeful that "government 2.0" tools such as Superpacapp.org and Politify.com will help cut through the iron grip bought advertisements have on our nation's votes. SuperPACApp: "While watching a political TV ad, a user can hold up her phone to identify the commercial and receive objective, third-party information. The Super PAC App allows the user to rate the ad, while understanding who and how much money is behind the ad, what claims the ad is making, and whether those claims are based on facts."

Politify: "makes it easy to see the economic impact the stated policies of different candidates will have on you personally, your community, and the nation, and more generally, display the flow of resources between you and the government. This, we hope, will cut through fear, uncertainty, and doubt/false advertising/ general hysteria, and will allow people to focus more on meaningful issues. This, in turn, we hypothesize, will help combat political apathy, especially in the under-voting young, tech-savvy demographic."

Mr. President. I wish you luck..

Money has always been a factor in politics

This is no doubt true, but I think lobbyist dollars are also a huge part of the problem here.

How do you feel about campaign finance reform, and/or decreasing the influence of lobbyist dollars on the way our country is governed?

I agree that Citizens United needs to be overturned, but I think that big money has had undue influence since well before its inception.

Full disclosure seems like a good idea because it forces those contributing to be honest about their intentions when donating that money. But I have an idea: what if all donations were anonymous? In such a way that it would be illegal for politicians/donators to tell the other "oh hey I gave you all this money, now you have to do what I want." So if it were illegal to do so, donators would be giving money simply to see their preferred candidate get elected, not to manipulate them.

I'm sure it's naive to think this is possible, and I'm sure there would be a way of finding out, but just think of the possibilities of our country if our politicians were able to act and legislate on par with their own values not those of money grubbing assholes!

I am genuinely looking forward to seeing how this turns out... from someone who lives in the UK I hope you win the next election, and to be honest, I think you definitely will.

I heard about a guy called Ron Paul for a while and he looked like a genuine erm... "intellectually capable" contender, but then the republicans put you up against this idiot Romney, and now Paul's name has some stigma associated with it for some reason.

Anyway, Good Luck with the election campaign!

So what if they tell us who contributed and how much. What are we the average person supposed to do about it? Are we supposed to somehow come up with a hundred mill or so to offset these super pacs? Instead of talking about it - Limit the amount and make some real penalties for violations. If a super pac can raise 100 million, then the penalty for violating any rules should be whatever they raised. ALL of it. The money from the fine to be immediately applied to the national debt and NOT put into the general fund to be squandered on pork projects.

I apologize for this, but I'm never ever going to get to correct the President's grammar again. President Barack Obama: It's whom.

Way to go, Mr. President! Now go do it!

who wrote this! Not that NIG!

What do you think of the Iraqi dinar? And all the American Citizens purchasing them in hopes they would re-value, making people rich overnight.?

Don't you benefit from the super-PACs just as much as Republicans do though?

I'm commenting to say I talked to the president

[deleted]

I understand how understand how they "threaten to overwhelm the political process" however, why can't the government just say "We're not taking your money to do your dirty work anymore?" Or are their so many people taking this money that you can't get people to agree not to take it anymore? Which begs me to wonder why those people are politicians in the first place.

I think all of those are a step in the right direction, but I would rather see a hard financial caps on campaign spending. I feel that is the only way to get the influence out of politics. If ever candidate on had a limited amount amount of money to spend on their campaign, it would really level the playing field. Plus, campaign contributions would become less meaningful and candidates would feel less obligated to return the favor.

I just replied to the President on Reddit and am now part of history.

I got nothing to say. Just wanted to reply to the President once in my life. :)

somewhat less important than who is giving is what are they getting in return. whether $5 or $5million it is apparent that the giver gives because they believe the candidate can further their ideological standards or benefit them directly. eg in the 2008 presidential election people related to goldman-sachs gave 3x as much to you as to sen mccain. what advantages did those connected to goldman-sachs then expect and receive from your administration?

in my opinion there is still a finite amount of money and thus propaganda and thus influence that can be exercised by someone outside the systems of delivery ie media empires. i am neither alone nor first in my esteem for the first amendment, but what has been more destructive to our political system and more easily able to "drown out the voices of ordinary citizens," essentially for free is the political influence of an activist ''press''. when i use ''press'' it is because the profession of journalist has fully transformed from reporting news and events to arguing motivations, delivering polemics as fact and inciting fear, uncertainty and doubt of the integrity of public servants and those who aspire to office.

if the political system is to be reformed then why not start with those at the spigot. there is no restriction on ''speech'' that i favor, but the integrity of the electoral process has been far too perverted. - shorter election season; it drones on like an unfunny snl sketch and blunts the enthusiasm of the electorate. - restriction of poll publications; polls re-enforce themselves in the electorate esp when close to the voting period. requirements for clearer distinction and delineation of commentary and opinion from news and reporting. it is commerce and the fcc's duty to steward the broadcasters and publishers for the safeguard of the public. it need not be onerous to foster transparency and equity. a large non-partisan committee (not of politicians - the fec is useless to the people) create clear standards and adjudicate contemporaneously on arising issues and events with the ability to impose penalties, restitutions and reparations.

Me. President what is your opinion on mitt Romney's choice choosing Paul Ryan as his running mate ? Please answer.

Due to most people feel money is the primary factor in politics and they feel it influences the election so people do not vote..they feel their vote will not count. The Disclosure Act and passing a Legislation prohibiting the bundling of campaign funds will be a huge start to give the election back to the people and giving the confidence to start voting and feel their vote will count. Can you please work this into your campaign because in the Southern states, such as Georgia and Alabama we have a hard time getting people to vote due to those factors.

Are you going to give back all the money you got from Goldman Sachs?

I wish I could believe this. I want to believe. There, I replied to the President of the United States.

:)

*to whom. FTFY

although money is a factor in many things, the level that it now dictates US policy is, sadly, insane.

I was picturing this response.

Or Reddit Romney!

That's disturbing. The entertainment industry is trying very, very hard to save itself by whatever means necessary when all they have to do is innovate.

Or you know, he only had 30 mins to look at around 20,000+ comments...

I'm as big a fan as the next person of musing about government and business conspiring against the little guy, but CAA reps talent. As in, pushing the interests of actors and the like against the studios pushing back just as hard. And the studios are the ones who love draconian measures like SOPA.

I certainly understand that there is arguably some benefit to artists in the studios' remaining in power (especially to the type of established artist that CAA represents), but their interests are definitely not wholly aligned. And as you probably know as a former CAA employee, CAA has embraced digital distribution much more enthusiastically than the studio model. For good reason: digital content has the potential to take control over production from the studios and give it back to talent.

I'm just not sure that I buy the implicit argument that powerful in Hollywood equals aligned with the studios. There are plenty of powerful Hollywood types who wouldn't shed a tear to see the studios go down in flames.

That's President Obama.

If his administration was not meeting with the CAA during SOPA I would be appalled. I am sure they had multiple meetings, a lot of them were conducted at the White House. A lot of them conducted on the hill and I'm sure their fair share at the offices. We don't know what went on in that meeting, it could have been good for the CAA, it could have been an intimidation thing, we don't know. I seriously doubt it was much more than trying not to piss off a prominent contributor if they sent the VP.

Anyways its not all black and white. SOPA wasn't all bad. Stealing is wrong, artists and big media should be able to protect their product. The question is how do you achieve this without harming the internet? If you look further down on this thread Obama essentially says this. In my opinion the CAA should have the ability to protect their property, but they should be limited to that. How we achieve that is still a mystery to me but there's smarter people than me working on it so I'm confident we'll figure out something. In the mean time try to keep an open mind and think in shades of grey not black and white. Almost nothing in life is a simple right or wrong answer.

If he prioritized this I would be upset. There's many things more important than this that need fixing first. This would be a suicide bill anyways. Both parties would vote it down instantly because these lobbys benefit both parties. He would piss off the left and the right and nothing would get done ever again.

Also let's not forget how important lobbys are to this country. In a two party winner takes all system lobbys are the ONLY way you can get your voice heard. Other countries can form political party's instead but we can't because we would be stealing votes. So lobbys are good but they need to be more accountable and transparent.

Anyways I want him to fix the country before he wastes his time thinking about something that will never happen.

What a surprise!

Get us out of there. Place is a damn nightmare.

Dear Mr. President Obama,

As a bisexual young man who served with the Army for a short time under DADT, I want to say thank you for all the things you've done for this country we both love and I'd like to let you know that it was an honor having you as my Commander In Chief. Thank you for everything.

~ CedarWolf

Not to suck up or anything, but the ability to make these kinds of decisions are why I voted for you over McCain in 2008. It came down to one thing for me, and that was I trusted you to think very long and very hard about every decision that put ANY life at risk, and I decided I trusted your character with that over senator McCain. No disrespect.

I understand this may be too personal a question, but do you ever struggle with your conscience about this, or do you more understand it as you are doing your duty, they are doing theirs?

That capitalization disturbs me.

Upon entering office, did you find that the situations in Afghanistan/Iraq were more complicated than you initially thought? If so, was this reflected in your strategy?

Can we quote you on 2014?

"Blunt"

-Barack Obama, redditor

The question was during this term. You campaigned on the decision to surge before you were president.

You utterly desteoyed Reddit's server. Thanks.

Over 2000 of our service members have lost their lives in Afghanistan. The people of Afghanistan not pose an obvious threat to the safety and security of our nation. How do we justify the loss of our citizens in order to preserve or maintain the stability of a foreign nation?

Mr. President, I'm a Canadian but I'm also a cigar smoker with many American friends. I have many brothers and sisters of the leaf concerned about taxation and Federal legislation surrounding cigars. There's also the matter of how it would impact the economies of countries like Nicaragua. First, what is your favorite cigar? Second, what are your thoughts on proposed cigar legislation?

--Avrus, Cigar Surgeon, M.D.

Not an easy decision to make... I couldn't imagine having that put on my shoulders. I can't barely decide what I want to eat in the morning.

At the end of 2014 if all of our troops are not withdrew from the middle east I, and countless others, will hold this over you head for centuries if you are reelected. The fact that we have been at war with a "mental state" something intangible something we cannot physically kill with guns but with talks and a cultural change. WE, as a nation, terrorize the world when their culture is perceived as different from ours.

No doubt we were attacked by a group who wanted to hurt us, but their attacks were not focused on our freedom but were there to show the world that we as a country attack many everyday with our global military force. We are, or were, the most powerful nation the world has ever known, but being powerful is not necessarily a large military force to control other nations into believing or acting to benefit us.

I think as a president you have done an adequate job, considering the colossal mountain you had to climb to get the country were we are today. Unfortunately you have only moved about an inch and we seriously need a mile. Its understandable that you along with many others must agree on policies in a constitutional fashion, but this is one thing we can all agree on, our invasion of the middle east is unconstitutional under our law with no declaration of war against any real identity recognized by the UN. We are not fighting a country anymore we are simply an invading force controlling a territory.

Our mission has been over for years according to Bush flying in on the aircraft carrier and giving his speech. I truly hope our men and women come on soon and we begin to fix our relationship with the Muslim culture rather than trying to beat them into submission.

Thank you for your AMA

I'm curious but doesn't giving the Taliban an actual date that we will pull out not just encourage them to stick in and wait until we leave?

How many times do you think Brandon Marshall will be arrested this year?

TIL Barack Obama is Commander Shepard.

Afghanistan

As an airmen currently serving in Afghanistan, I thank you Mr. President for looking out for all of us. Hopefully our 2014 plan will run its course smoothly and efficiently.

This is my only opportunity to say this, so thank you for doing this.

I never thought of how bad it must feel to send people away, knowing some will die...

It has been said that the Karzai government controls little of the country since it lacks legitimacy with the Afghan people.

Pakistan is alleged to be harboring the Taliban, such that if the Karzai government falls, or if chaos prevails in Afghanistan after US & NATO forces leave the region... They will have a government, of some kind, to put in place, rather than have an entirely lawless and ungoverned region on its border.

Do you think the Karzai government will be able to maintain control over Afghanistan once our forces leave?

If the Karzai government is unable to maintain control... Do you believe that the Pakistani Taliban will be able to exert control over Afghan territory?

If this combination of events occurred, it would seem as though the combined forces involved will have lost thousands of lives and billions of dollars to end up with the same situation on the ground after we leave, as there was before we arrived.

What is your take on this? As well as the general lack of control that Pakistan is said to have over its own territory, specifically the tribal regions on the AfPak border?

You kill bid laden. You sir are a badass.

You're a cool dude.

We keep hearing o the drone strikes in Pakistan and the occasional confirmed Taliban kill. How much of Pamistan's saber rattling over their sovereignty is genuine and how much is intended to placate their population?

I love you, President Obama. you give me hope for this country.

How is this not the top-rated comment by far?

Do you believe that the invasion of Afghanistan in the first place was a bad idea?

I understand that you were put into presidency right in the middle of two wars, and while you have done a great job finishing the war in Iraq, do you think it should have ever been started?

Afghanistan.

ftfy

As a future military member, I know you struggled with this decision. But it's what we have volunteered for. I will follow my battle buddies into battle and defend this country.

"we will end the war by the end of 2014"

Saved.

I am very glad you said this.

I'm only replying because then I can say I sent a message to the President of the USA. Although I will probably never get a reply. Still cool!

Was it more difficult than deciding to drastically expand the use of drone bombings in Pakistan? Was it more difficult than deciding to invade Libya for its oil and gold? Was it more difficult than deciding to invade central Africa? Was it more difficult than deciding to not only continue Bush policies, but to expand them?

BTW, congratulations on the Nobel Peace Prize. Now we all know what THAT'S worth.

I appreciate this reply. A tough question to answer and a good and tough response. No winners here. IMHO we are not blunting the Taliban much at all and this was a mistake but by choosing this as the response I think the issue is acknowledged - and to be fair this is a mess you inherited and there isn't a good solution to it - just a series of poor options.

Great awnser mate

Lol, he said blunt.

What about a possible war with Iran or Syria? The endless Middle East.

Wow, this is definitely a definite plus. I'm glad to see your passion and motives on this subject.

Commenting to be part of history :) Hi Obama

really... ask the 101st how they feel about that!

I voted for you in 2008 and I have these requests:

Can you please:

• Repeal the Patriot Act
• Stop the Federal Government in shutting down state compliant businesses when it comes to marijuana - prohibition doesn't work and the drug war has been an epic failure.
• Adopt a non interventionist foreign policy
• Not contest the Federal Judge's injunction on the NDAA provision of indefinite detention
• Reduce the TSA
• End the Pentagon's 1033 program

And finally: Please stand up for our constitutional rights and liberties over "security" by vetoing legislation from Congress that violates those principles.

What if I told you most people don't care as much about fighting the Taliban as they do about getting school books and lunches to public school children?

This is amazing, we get to here exactly what the president is thinking about and why he makes his decisions without any bias or TV ads. Good luck Mr. President!

Here's an idea... Let's forget about the oil.

Let's move to green energy and pure fuels like we see in movies.

Let the middle east squabble over oil, and let's not be addicted. we're crippled, man. At this point, we shouldn't rely on any other countries for anything.

So, your toughest decision was one that you totally botched.

Congratulations, I'm sure the military-industrial complex will make sure you get plenty of speaking fees in your retirement to thank you for the lives you've wasted and the the tax money you've drained from the American people to keep that debacle going.

Mr. President, I, last June, ETS'd from the Army. If you would be so generous as to take some time to answer a question and hear a quick opinion or two, I'd be very grateful.

First and foremost to me, is of course the issue I deal with now. The VA. Everything moves at a slower bureaucratic pace there than it did for the Logistics section of the Ordnance Corps. I was fortunate to have my folks to go back to, who were willing to support me until the day comes where I can (literally as well as financially) get back on my feet. It took 6 months from the time I submitted my medical records to the VA before I got any sort of treatment, disability, and so forth, and even then, they claimed I hadn't enough evidence for most of my claims (despite explicit details of surgery, dozens of forms documenting each injury, and a medical records file that was over 350 pages long). They even denied I had any back problems whatsoever (introduce me to a soldier who has no back problems and I'll introduce you to someone who's never been out of TRADOC).

I have to drive from Durango, CO to Albuquerque, NM, for most of my appointments, which takes time away from either what pitiful job I could get or my schooling. My medical appointments can only be scheduled 2 or more months out, and sometimes I have to cancel because I simply cannot afford the gas money.

To cut to the chase, do you have any sort of plans on improving the VA? My siblings-in-arms can't always wait for 6-18 months for some kind of documentation giving them the rights awarded to disabled folk. Many of us are barred from decent paying jobs because we our bodies can no longer take even the simple strain of working on our feet. Should those veterans who don't have families willing to house and feed them find themselves in my situation, they'd end up on the streets. It's difficult to find a decent paying job when we have no education, simply because we walked off the High School graduation stage, diploma in hand, and onto a jet headed for Fts. Benning, Jackson, Knox, or such. We need a better support system for our disabled vets than handing them their DD214 and telling them that "The VA should get back to you within a year or so," and having them, veterans who've lived in a rigidly structured environment with a guaranteed (though 2011 was a bit sketchy) paycheck, go into a world with relatively no structure, no guaranteed pay, and no support outside of a suicide hotline (which we are afraid to use because despite briefings saying otherwise, admitting oneself for help will RUIN one's career).

Thank you for your time, Mr. President.

Mr. President, I just wanted to say thank you for supporting the decision of the Council of Representatives of Iraq to move out. We are better off out of there, Academi and all.

It's wise to remember the broken window fallacy. It does not honor the fallen to send brethren to avenge them. The Robert Frost poem "Mending Wall" is more eloquent than I can ever be:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mending_Wall

Can we agree that fighting the Taliban is a futile, useless war that is virtually un-winnable considering that our very presence in the Middle East is part of the reason that they are fighting us, not to mention the false pretenses under which we ended up there in the first place. Can we also agree that there were ulterior motives for toppling the Saddam Hussein, and the Taliban, and ultimately the Libyan and Syrian regimes? Resources grab? And let's not even get into 9-11 and the ridiculous official stories there; building number 7 mysteriously collapsing, virtually zero wreckage at the crash site of flight 93 and the Pentagon. It's all a load of crap and it's insulting that you expect us go along with it. Just nauseating.

I don't want to be an old man when the truth finally comes to light.

Hello Mr. President, i would just like to tell you that your doing a good job, just there a few issues i would like you to come out with, such as decriminalizing marijuana, because i believe people who use or possess it should not be listed as criminals and that i believe if your administration takes the time to look more closely at this, and that if you can try to propose a bill to tax it it will help further economic growth, and also the issue on gay marriage, i believe that it is constitutional and that we should put religion a side and that we need to further ourselves to create a better peaceful nation for the future, and i also think you did a great job with your policy on wars, i give you credit despite what your critics say, and i believe creating a better nation for today, will make a better nation for tomorrow, and i also recently have became a humanist and i have joined a cause to help make a better community, a better region, but most importantly a better nation, so if you read this, i appreciate it, and i wish the best for you in your re-election bid, Mr. President

Hi Mr. President, Can you please ask the tyrant Hamad of Bahrain to free Nabeel Rajab. Thanks.

You are culpable for the deaths of your drone victims Mr. President. We will never forget.

As an Army Vet who lost friends in Iraq I will say that I don't see how it was a hard decision to say "no". Bring our brothers and sisters home.

And you know, because of the Taliban, and all the other idiot terrorists out there, Muslims have a bad name now! So please, help some of us out, man.

The reason many voted for you... http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_UyQM-7RX6I So quit being a coward and do it!

My brother spent four years in Afghanistan, he came home safely and is riddled with nightmares (after being out for five years). some things you never forget

Mr.President

During your campaign you stated that you were going to pull them out during your service. Let us note that you did pull some out but not a signifagent number. Now during your second campaign that if your left in office that you will be pulling them out. Again let us note that you already said that, and your saying that at the end of your term. How can we be sure that if we do elect you that you will pull them out and make sure that there all safe, and not to mention there mental stability, will be better coming back home. One last thing, how will you make economy better? its been falling but has stopped at one of the lowest in history. Im afraid if we don't raise it then the next generation will have to face our mistakes.

Just Replying to TPOTUS.

What people think is difficult says a lot about them. But I'm doing my due diligence of upvoting the hardball questions too (ex. SOPA and SPAAAAAAAACE)

did you just yelled at the president?

These would be rabid and out to kill.

I saw it on reddit, as a picture of it on TV.

No you saw it here

http://www.reddit.com/r/funny/comments/z2rcy/so_i_watching_the_news_this_morning/

Liar!

Then why did you sign ACTA?

internet remains the open forum for everybody

I don't think we're worried about it being open.

I think we're worried about our government taking away our privacy and unbiased access.

What do you say about that?

This is a very hard thing to believe in light of what you unleashed against Wikileaks. I am not talking about Assange's prosecution, I am talking about wikileaks being cut from Amazon, Visa, Mastercard, Paypal, and being erased from ICANN registers.

How do you reconcile these actions with your passion for internet Freedom?

Sure thing. Do you like cats?