U.S. President Barack (Obama) on Thursday held an interactive online meeting with ordinary citizens across the country, the first (such) kind of meeting in the history of the White House.
Standing (in front of) a TV screen and joined by an audience in the East Room of the White House, the president replied to six online questions on education, the mortgage (crisis), job outsourcing, national service, assistance for veterans and health care.
Four of the six virtual questions were (displayed) on the screen in a written format; the other two were video submissions.
The questions were selected from more than 104,000 questions submitted (by) the public to the White House's web site, WhiteHouse.gov, which streamed live video of the meeting.
During the session, the president (repeatedly) steered the discussion toward larger economic themes, most notably the recent spike in job losses.
He warned that even if the (economy) has already bottomed out, unemployment probably would continue to get worse. Obama also discussed education (reform).
The president, who revolutionized the use of technology as a (political) tool during his presidential campaign last year, is the first U.S. president to address questions from the public live on the Internet.
Questions)
1. What do you think of the online meeting between the President and ordinary citizens ?
2. In your opinion, what are the responsibilities of a US president ?
