How Reddit Got Obama • Hacker News Board

Re: How Reddit Got Obama

#41

Post by redthrowaway » Thu, Aug 30, 2012, 2:06 AM UTC

001sky wrote: post #34

redthrowaway wrote: post #27

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Why on Earth would he go touch marijuana legalization with a 10-foot pole? He's not Ron Paul; he's actually trying to win the election. The average swing voter is a middle-aged mom, and you want him to talk about marijuana legalization? You can either be a frank politician who addresses all questions honestly, or you can be a politician who wins elections.

Why on Earth would he go touch marijuana legalization with a 10-foot pole? Well, if its good enough for TED, why not Reddit? http://whohastimeforthis.blogspot.com/2012/03/best-of-ted-20... Hands down, the best [TED] talk this year was from Bryan Stevenson on injustice in the US criminal legal system. For example, the number of prisoners in the last 40 years has grown from 300,000 to 2.3 million (primarily, I believe,…

You just wooshed my comment, hard. I'm not saying it's not a real issue, I'm saying he'd have to be an idiot to address it. It's a no-win situation for him: either piss of the young voters he's trying to court, or piss off the swing voters he needs to court. There is simply nothing for him to gain by addressing marijuana legalization.

Ron Paul doesn't suffer from this problem. He's not trying (or able) to win the White House; he's trying to bring issues to the forefront of the public consciousness and raise awareness of libertarian positions. Ron Paul can afford to address the issues that would lose real candidates elections, as he's not about to win any elections outside of his House seat.

Re: How Reddit Got Obama

#42

Post by nacker » Thu, Aug 30, 2012, 2:09 AM UTC

001sky wrote: post #34

redthrowaway wrote: post #27

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Why on Earth would he go touch marijuana legalization with a 10-foot pole? He's not Ron Paul; he's actually trying to win the election. The average swing voter is a middle-aged mom, and you want him to talk about marijuana legalization? You can either be a frank politician who addresses all questions honestly, or you can be a politician who wins elections.

Why on Earth would he go touch marijuana legalization with a 10-foot pole? Well, if its good enough for TED, why not Reddit? http://whohastimeforthis.blogspot.com/2012/03/best-of-ted-20... Hands down, the best [TED] talk this year was from Bryan Stevenson on injustice in the US criminal legal system. For example, the number of prisoners in the last 40 years has grown from 300,000 to 2.3 million (primarily, I believe,…

Along with the (Nobel Peace Prize Winner's) wars, this is the major reason why I have left the US until there is a revolution. It is simply sickening that most voters ignore this issue.

As far as I am concerned, the United States of America, as conceived by Thomas Jefferson, no longer exists. That is why I choose to reside outside the USA.

If any possibility arises of a shooting revolution, I will be back with a gun, and willing to give my life for freedom.

http://www.infowars.com

Re: How Reddit Got Obama

#43

Post by rorrr » Thu, Aug 30, 2012, 2:18 AM UTC

redthrowaway wrote: post #27

rorrr wrote: post #24

What a disappointing AMA. He answers stupid questions about his favorite basketball player and the white house beer recipe, but completely ignores the important ones about decriminalization of marijuana. Fuck him. I'm not voting for him. He's a mild and more sociable version of Romney.

Why on Earth would he go touch marijuana legalization with a 10-foot pole? He's not Ron Paul; he's actually trying to win the election. The average swing voter is a middle-aged mom, and you want him to talk about marijuana legalization? You can either be a frank politician who addresses all questions honestly, or you can be a politician who wins elections.

Because that's one of the promises he made during his first election campaign, and he broke it.

Re: How Reddit Got Obama

#44

Post by jcr » Thu, Aug 30, 2012, 2:49 AM UTC

Is it "Reddit got Obama" or is it "Obama got Reddit"?

I think the best answer is, "Yes," since it seems to be mutually beneficial exploitation of Reddit USERS for the sake of press coverage (both Obama getting press and Reddit getting press).

Re: How Reddit Got Obama

#45

Post by nacker » Thu, Aug 30, 2012, 3:02 AM UTC

edw519 wrote: post #30

There are quite a few redditors at 1600 Pennsylvania Ave... Your tax dollars at work.

It's so sad to see so many HN and Redditors so intent on their "upwardly mobile", morally relative dreams that they fail to take account of the totalitarian state they have come to live in. You will NOT be alright, jack.

Listen. As of September 2012, the AppForThat, Startup, bubble is just about over. I say this as someone who warned others of the dotcom and real estate bubbles. If you want to think of it as a "technical", or chartreading thing, fine. The bottom line is: GET OUT NOW, the shit is about to hit the fan. Yeah, I know you don't want to hear it. Sorry to bear bad news.

If you haven't heard of it, this is the Fourth Turning. (Startpage.com it). If you think life is going to go on as as usual, think again.

Get ready. Hunker down. This is for real. Don't trust the government.

Re: How Reddit Got Obama

#46

Post by noodle » Thu, Aug 30, 2012, 3:04 AM UTC

JohnsonB wrote: post #36

They didn't "get" Obama at all. He has so far answered a total of 10 questions, all of them canned, standard set pieces from his campaign that you could have just as easily read off his website. And he wasn't even the one interacting with the community; it's questionable if he was involved with this AMA at all. This was essentially a complete abuse of the AMA system but no one's calling him on it because he's the POT…

> He has so far answered a total of 10 questions

I'd point out that he did say he only had 30 minutes, and given how poorly reddit handled the traffic, I'm surprised he managed to get 10 answers in, copy/paste jobs or no.

How would you have preferred it to go, anyway? Seems like he's not going to make everyone happy no matter how its sliced, so perhaps he should have just not done one?

Re: How Reddit Got Obama

#47

Post by [deleted] » Thu, Aug 30, 2012, 3:08 AM UTC

JohnsonB wrote: post #36

They didn't "get" Obama at all. He has so far answered a total of 10 questions, all of them canned, standard set pieces from his campaign that you could have just as easily read off his website. And he wasn't even the one interacting with the community; it's questionable if he was involved with this AMA at all. This was essentially a complete abuse of the AMA system but no one's calling him on it because he's the POT…

[deleted]

Re: How Reddit Got Obama

#48

Post by mikeash » Thu, Aug 30, 2012, 3:10 AM UTC

noodle wrote: post #46

JohnsonB wrote: post #36

They didn't "get" Obama at all. He has so far answered a total of 10 questions, all of them canned, standard set pieces from his campaign that you could have just as easily read off his website. And he wasn't even the one interacting with the community; it's questionable if he was involved with this AMA at all. This was essentially a complete abuse of the AMA system but no one's calling him on it because he's the POT…

> He has so far answered a total of 10 questions I'd point out that he did say he only had 30 minutes, and given how poorly reddit handled the traffic, I'm surprised he managed to get 10 answers in, copy/paste jobs or no. How would you have preferred it to go, anyway? Seems like he's not going to make everyone happy no matter how its sliced, so perhaps he should have just not done one?

That's by far the least of the objections raised. 10 interesting, insightful answers that offered new information would have been fascinating. But we got 10 canned answers that told us nothing we already knew. That was the real problem here, although nobody should have been surprised.

Re: How Reddit Got Obama

#49

Post by mikeash » Thu, Aug 30, 2012, 3:11 AM UTC

derleth wrote: post #26

jonathanberger wrote: post #12

> "Not surprisingly, every answer he’s offered up so far has been studiously on-message." This part was a bit disappointing. Part of the fun of an AMA is finding out the unexpected. His one-liners about the Bulls or "NOT BAD" were my favorite parts.

What do you expect? When you're in an office, and I mean a high office, you represent that office and all that office represents. Right or wrong, the office of the President of the United States represents America on the international scene. And people are unfair. People take things out of context. Occasionally, people just make shit up and shove it into your mouth. You can't stop them, but you can avoid helping them…

It's precisely what I'd expect, but that doesn't mean I can't be disappointed by it. I expect the worst from our politicians and my expectations are usually met, but that doesn't mean I wouldn't like more.

Re: How Reddit Got Obama

#50

Post by eli » Thu, Aug 30, 2012, 3:12 AM UTC

rorrr wrote: post #24

What a disappointing AMA. He answers stupid questions about his favorite basketball player and the white house beer recipe, but completely ignores the important ones about decriminalization of marijuana. Fuck him. I'm not voting for him. He's a mild and more sociable version of Romney.

I don't really see what you're getting at. Do you think the Whitehouse policy on drugs has changed since the last time they addressed legalizing marijuana [1]? If not, how is anyone served by hearing the same answer rehashed?

[1] https://petitions.whitehouse.gov/petition/legalize-and-regul...