Obama's Transparent Presidency: Weekly YouTube Addresses

President-elect Obama's office gave the media a new way to present him as Franklin Roosevelt 2.0 by announcing Friday that it will be posting weekly addresses - fireside chats for the web generation - on YouTube.

The first address will appear on Change.gov this Saturday, after it airs in audio. An Obama spokesperson says that this innovation is just the beginning of the digital, transparent presidency. The plan appears to be in the mold of what the campaign did with videos like "Four Days in Denver" and Campaign Manager David Plouffe's conversations on the state of the race. These videos allowed supporters to feel like they had a direct connection to the campaign, a connection that bypassed the media. Already, the Obama team has made good on the post-election plan. It posted a video from Valerie Jarrett, one of Obama's transition chairs, discussing plans for the new administration. Watch it here:

Can the Obama team use the tools they built during the campaign to drum up support for complicated government initiatives? With a campaign, there were clear goals: raise money, organize, get out the vote. With a presidency, you have over 305 million Americans to motivate. We will be watching, texting, commenting, twittering, and of course, blogging the results.

Comments

[Hoisin]

I'm still waiting to hear the substance behind his economic plan. We did get part of it AFTER he won the election. He mentioned it in his victory speech and smart Republicans were keen to note his sudden, less misleading tone "We might not be able to fix the economy in two years". Of course he wasnt going to discuss that reality while hypnotizing voters with the "last eight years" statements. The sad part is how dull many Americans are. A trip to ones local library nets several books going back to 1993 (Clinton's "watch") that discussed why Clinton's economic plan was going to cause a huge economic downswing in the near future. Of course dont tell that to anyone, since it happened when Bush was in office, that immediately makes it Bushs fault. The bottom line is a college kid studding economics could see this coming, but trying to explain what the central bank is, lose credit markets and the inflationary result is clearly above the heads of people whose feelings-based agenda doesnt want to be inconvenienced by reality; and because discussing economic policy with the average American is "boring" compared to discussing what Britney's new misadventure for the week is.

[joeneri]

Is this what you mean?

"The act has been cited as a public-policy decision significantly contributing to Enron's bankruptcy in 2001 and the much broader liquidity crisis of September 2008 that led to the bankruptcy filing of Lehman Brothers and emergency Federal Reserve Bank loans to American International Group[1] and to the creation of the U.S. Emergency Economic Stabilization fund." http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Commodity_Futures_Modernization_Act_of_2000

Watch CBS Videos Online

[Tonyrich300]

Huffington Post,
Please can you report on the BILDERBERG GROUP?
Obama attended their last meeting in June 2008 in Virginia on the day his campaign claimed he was having a secret meeting with Hillary Clinton.
Everyone else, please google search it.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eDUMEEl_ajM
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DI4qH0uVHEM&feature=related
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3jmzWi_nhQg
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/americas/4290944.stm

[teachuth]

Obama is transforma­tional.Whe­n you consider his background, i am most happy that children of a variety of ethnic backgrounds can feel as though anything really is possible for them. We keep saying this, and I know some people, may say yeah Ok, but this will help the young people who would have never thought in a million years this was a goal that they could aspire to.

[LemonMeringue]

He inspires people. I want him to speak to the people every week. Knowing Obama the chats will be filled with substance, not marketing junk.

[toyboat]

i think it's awesome that he is trying to keep us in the loop, after all this is our gov't & we have every right in the world to know what the hell is going on especially since it's us & our children that will be affected by the choices that get made. it sure is a nice change from all the secrecy & stupidity that went on for the last 8 looooong years

[rollingdivision]

A regular open weekly question and answer news conference with press would be a new level of transparency. What? A prerecorded video is transparency? No this is a marketing ploy.

[MasterfullyInept]

Yeah so Fox news can ask about Bill Ayers and Rev Wright every week?

[riverhouse]

It's a new world.

[MasterfullyInept]

I suppose the the Gee Whiz Mr President factor will wear off eventually, but gosh these people are a breath of fresh air.

I'm just imagining some really difficult contentious issue coming along some time soon and the President elect appearing on youtube to make his case .Taking the time to explain things to the people, bypassing the corporate news filter, and just generally befuddling the hell out of them and those who oppose him.What fun this is going to be.

[Paris68]

Way to use the interwebs!!! You know, a few weeks ago, I heard a snippet of the weekly Presidential radio address and then the Democratic response, delivered by Obama. I thought, okay, I know this guy is all FDR and everything, but one thing he needs to do is bring this address into the 21st century (podcast, YouTube, CNN hologram, etc.)

[realityczech4u]

JFK is acknowledged as having been the first President to have mastered televsion as a communications medium. President-elect Obama has earned the distinction and will go down in history as being the first to master the internet. Gobama.

[fussygorilla]

Oh Gawd. I live in a coutry than bans Youtube. How do I get to listen to President Obama? Somebody please advise.

[mamoyo]

Move countries..... just kidding. I may be moving to a country that has strict censorship rules next year so I feel your pain

[PatrickforO]

I'm counting on him using the tools he developed, and the massive grass roots support, to hold the administration, Senate and House accountable for advancing the agenda we voted for. Twenty-first Century fireside chats...good. I'll watch them, and will keep posting on change dot gov.

[RealityBaseCamp]

Now, if he's a REAL good sport, he'll do them in front of a green screen like McCain. But make no mistake, he's been able to strike back at ridiculous charges while he was campaigning every day, but now that he's busy, all the rumormongers won't let up for a minute. He has to use this to fight back. In fact, I'd love to see him do it with an audience. The laugh he got with, "and they assumed I was talking about the Governor of Alaska" was just the weapon he needed to peel the lipstick off the swift boaters.

[MillaRSC]

What a wonderful world we will live in!!!
I was dreaming about this way of democracy,
but didn't think I'll be alive to witness it.

[Schnitzel]

The President's security concerns are going to make interaction with the public difficult at best. I do hope that President Obama makes use of electronic resources such as frequent appearences on c-span's "American Journal" as well as You-Tube and message boards (sorta like this one) to avoid the "Bubble Effect". Two way communication between the President and the public is going to be essential for effective governance.

Of course in that environment your going to have to contend with crazies and cranks but it's better to defeat the crackpots of the world with wisdom and not with weapons.