Unfortunately the thread is crashing frequently and is in read-only mode due to heavy traffic, but I'm looking forward to seeing his answers to people's questions. Here's a cached copy of the page, but it's likely to be out of date.

  • http://profile.yahoo.com/FU2OPOHCEUXWH5ZBKK7LAZ64M4 iix

    So that’s why Reddit’s down!  That’s pretty awesome he’s doing an AMA.  I haven’t read the thread yet but I’m eager to.

  • Duffong

    Something like 4k+ comments in under 20 minutes. Amazing. Too bad the tough questions won’t be answered. He’s only allowing for 30 minutes to answer any questions, which means, not much of substance will be answered. Though I’d love to see if Mitt Romney would even dare do the same.

    • Antinous / Moderator

      Something like 4k+ comments in under 20 minutes.

      I’ve noticed that, when there’s a big breaking story (funnily enough, usually about Obama), HuffPo sometimes gets more comments in a couple of hours on one post than we get on all of BB in a month. There’s an army out there, just waiting to fire.

      • Pedantic Douchebag

        It’s almost as if…people have portable computers that connect to the internet at their disposal.

  • LaylaSV

    God damn it. I was in the middle of an utterly epic troll.

    • http://www.facebook.com/postelwait Cameron Postelwait

      i think you’ve still got it.

  • hassenpfeffer

    Is Obama’s AMA on Reddit the 2012 version of Clinton playing sax on Letterman in ’92?

    • johne2

      Arsenio, wasnt it?

      • http://maggiekb.com/ Maggie Koerth-Baker

        It was. I watched it. 

      • Antinous / Moderator

        Bush Sr. sort of spontaneously announced that he wouldn’t go on Arsenio, to which Mr. Hall replied:

        Well, excuse me, George Herbert irregular-heart-beating, read-my-lying-lipping, slipping-in-the-polls, do-nothing, deficit-raising, make-less-money-than-Millie-the-White-House-dog-last-year, Quayle-loving, sushi-puking Walker Bush. I don’t remember inviting your ass to my show.

    • LinkMan

       More like Clinton’s MTV appearance.  “Boxers or briefs, Mr. President?”

  • http://maggiekb.com/ Maggie Koerth-Baker

    Wow. An Internet town hall meeting. This is either an extremely brave move (by political standards, I mean), or the beginning of an unmitigated disaster (by political standards, I mean).

    Or, possibly, both at once.

    • LaylaSV

       I’m kind of in love with him right now.

    • TooGoodToCheck

       I’m not super familiar with the AMA format, but I assume that while people may ask anything, he gets to pick what he’ll answer, so is it really that brave?

      • corydodt

        Sure, but that’s not the whole of his risk expsoure. What if he answers a question and someone posts a reply that reframes the answer as propaganda? Suppose an incredibly racist question — or porn — gets topvoted as a question to ask?

        It doesn’t matter to the media, to his opponent, or to the Republican Party in general what his role was in this event, or what he actually said. It’s gonna be guilt by association, and they’ll find some way to frame it that makes it his fault.

        In fact, that’s virtually certain, no matter how well the Redditors behave. So I guess, on balance, it isn’t that brave after all. If he walks his dog tomorrow, the RNC will find a way to make that an act of gun-stealin’ socialism.

        • TooGoodToCheck

           Ahh.  I was not familiar with the upvoting mechanic – I assumed it was more of a free-for-all.

    • http://deansli.st/ Dean Putney

      PRESIDENT DISCOVERS REDDIT: COUNTRY LEFT VULNERABLE TO INVASION, CITIES BURN, ECONOMY IMPLODES

    • Supernumerary

      Thirty minutes, though. It’s wonderful that he’s doing this in the first place, but how do you manage to answer more than a handful of questions in half an hour?

    • magicdragonfly

       It’s not at all brave: on the internet, no-one knows your speech writer is really at the keyboard.

  • http://twitter.com/EC_Duncan Emily Duncan

    It’s probably “crashing” because someone asked about marijuana and / or the TSA.

  • spacemunky

    Tomorrow: Romney shows tits on 4chan

    • Brainspore

      Friday: Ron Paul reveals that he is the gentleman pictured in “goatse”.

  • http://www.avoision.com/ avoision

    The main thread seems to be laggy, but it may be easier to view just those questions where Obama has made a reply. I don’t visit Reddit often, but I *think* this page might show just his responses:

    http://www.reddit.com/user/PresidentObama

    You can click on “context” to see the original question and other Redditors’ responses.

  • Veronica Beaty
    • http://deansli.st/ Dean Putney

      That’s the one I linked to in the post. ;)

  • Sean Grady

    It’s very cool that he’s doing this, but while he did approach a few of the harder questions (e.g., decisions about the wars, jobs), I wish he answered the other hard ones about drug policy and the dissolution of our liberties.  And there’s a massive question/answer ratio disparity.
    But who am I kidding?  +1 for being on Reddit +1 for Reddit gold, +1s all around

  • http://twitter.com/posty Derek

    It should be noted that someone from NORML asked about marijuana regulation early, it was one of the most upvoted questions, which means it would likely have been seen, but ignored.

    It is kind of hard to tell whether it was WITHIN the HALF HOUR that was scheduled, but it was definately within the hour of the first post. It’s a great start to having an internet ‘town hall’ meeting, but I believe more than half an hour to answer the publics questions should have been allotted. I know he’s a busy man, but it’s more tokenistic than helpful.

    he was typing and reading quite furiously though, 10 questions answered in 30 minutes :D

    How long was the last town hall meeting? is this comparable? I’m Australian, I don’t remember. :)

  • s2redux

    Haven’t visited the thread yet, but I’m eager to see how Reddit handled the proofs for someone posting, “I’m the US Prez, AMA”…how do you dox this guy; who confirms? ;-)

    • http://glitch.tl/ Michael Smith

      The President linked to his twitter account, which presumably linked to the AmA and is authenticated by virtue of being controlled by his publicity department.