Doug Mills/The New York TimesPresident Obama responded to questions posted on Twitter during a town hall forum, with Jack Dorsey, a Twitter executive, moderating.President Obama has begun taking questions from his Tweeps.
For the first time, Twitter users are getting the chance to use their 140-character musings to direct questions at the leader of the free world.
As if to show how it’s done, Mr. Obama started the questioning himself, standing behind a laptop and typing in his own query:
in order to reduce the deficit,what costs would you cut and what investments would you keep – boless than a minute ago via web 
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The White House
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But if Mr. Obama thought he’d get a free ride with easy-going questions, he was sorely mistaken.
The first question was whether he should have done anything differently to help the economy. Mr. Obama offered two suggestions: to better explain to the public about how long it would take for the economy to improve; and to do more to deal with the housing market.
Before the event started, Republicans in Washington seized the opportunity to flood Twitter with their own politically tinged questions, using the social network to push their critique of Mr. Obama’s handling of the economy, one blurb at a time.
House Speaker John A. Boehner tweeted:
With 9.1% unemployment & “shovel ready” jobs a bust, will you admit the ’stimulus’ was a mistake? http://bit.ly/oTK17f #askobamaless than a minute ago via CoTweet Favorite Retweet Reply
Speaker John Boehner
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Mr. Boehner was followed by a steady stream of those questions from his fellow Republicans and his supporters in the Twitter universe. By the time Mr. Obama started his town hall, hundreds of such questions had flooded in.
The potential questions for the president also included many that he would not be likely to be asked during a typical news conference.
RT @ACLU: Why is your administration insisting on prosecuting those who cultivate/distribute medical marijuana for sick people? #AskObamaless than a minute ago via Twitter for iPhone Favorite Retweet Reply
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Another sought to get Mr. Obama on the record on “Harry Potter” versus “The Lord of the Rings.”
#askobama If Dumbledore & Gandalf battled Voldemort & Sauron, who do you think would win and wouldn’t it be awesome?less than a minute ago via Seesmic Favorite Retweet Reply
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Will any of those questions actually be put to Mr. Obama? Stay tuned and we’ll find out.
