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WASHINGTON (AP) - President Barack Obama kicked off his first
Twitter town hall with -- what else? -- a tweet.


      Using a laptop set up on a lectern in the East Room of the White
House, Obama typed this message: "In order to reduce the deficit,
what costs would you cut and what investments would you keep?"


      The tweet set the tone for the town hall focused on jobs and the
economy, and hosted by Twitter, the social media service. The White
House sees social media as an opportunity for the president to
interact with Americans directly, particularly the younger and more
tech-savvy part of the electorate, as his re-election campaign
ramps up.

      Twitter selected the questions for the president from among the
thousands of inquires submitted from people across the country,
including Republican House Speaker John Boehner, who asked Obama,
"Where are the jobs?"


      "This is a slightly skewed question," Obama said of his
political rival's inquiry.


      The president went on to answer Boehner's question by noting
that the economy is, in fact, creating jobs, though not at a pace
anyone should be satisfied with. He said there was more the
government could do to boost the economy but also said he hasn't
always been able to get Republican support for doing so.


      Obama also used the town hall as an opportunity to deliver a
remarkably critical line about Republicans who are fighting with
him over raising the nation's borrowing limit. Obama said GOP
lawmakers should not use their votes on that matter as "a gun
against the heads of the American people" to retain the tax breaks
they want for corporate jet owners and oil companies.


      Twitter users had to keep their questions to the social
networking site's 140-character limit. But the president had no
such restrictions. He answered in his trademark, lengthy form to
questions on college costs, immigration, collective bargaining
rights, the debt limit, manufacturing jobs, the housing crisis and
other topics as Twitter users sent queries in by the tens of
thousands.


      Twitter was boiling his answers down to 140 characters or less
at http://askobama.twitter.com. The White House was doing the same
through its official Twitter account, (at)WhiteHouse.


      The president took 18 questions from the Twitterverse before
town hall moderator and Twitter co-founder Jack Dorsey turned the
conversation around and read the president an array of people's
responses to the live tweet from Obama that started the event.

      Tweeters responded en masse with ideas for how to reduce the
nation's deficit: cut defense contracting, trim the war on drugs,
stop giving money to Pakistan, raise taxes, cut oil subsidies.


      Obama found lots to agree with, but he also had lots of
explanatory caveats. On cutting defense spending, he cautioned:
"We have to do all of this in a fairly gradual way." On reducing
foreign aid, he said lots of people have exaggerated ideas about
what the U.S. spends overseas.

      The first question asked of Obama concerned what mistakes he'd
made in handling the recession and what he'd do differently.

      Obama defended his stimulus program as "the right thing to
do." But he allowed that his administration had underestimated the
severity of the recession, and so he did not prepare the American
people "for how long this was going to take" and the touch
choices that lay ahead. 


Obama also said the problems in the housing
market were more stubborn than expected and he'd had to revamp his
assistance programs several times.

      Leaving the economy briefly, Dorsey, the event moderator, said
Obama received several questions on his decision to eliminate the
space shuttle program. With NASA's final launch set for Friday,
Obama defended his decision, saying it's time for the U.S. to look
toward the future.

      "We're still using the same models for space travel that we
used for the Apollo program 30 or 40 years ago," he said. "Rather
than keep on doing the same thing, let's invest in basic research
around new technology that can get us places faster, allow human
space flight to last longer."

      A handful of journalists from newspapers around the country were
asked by Twitter to join the event as "curators," a role that
entails trying to generate questions on the economy from Twitter
users and helping the company to identify trends in the inquiries.

      The town hall also marked the first White House "Tweetup" --
that's an in-person gathering of people who are connected through
Twitter.


      The White House invited about 30 people who follow the
administration's official Twitter account, (at)WhiteHouse, to come
to Washington to take part in Wednesday's event. The invitees were
also meeting with senior administration officials following the
town hall to share their thoughts on issues important to them.

      Obama has taken questions from the public via social media,
including Twitter, before. In April, he took part in a town hall
hosted by Facebook.

      Associated Press writers Ben Feller and Nancy Benac contributed
to this report.
      
            

Gallery

Politics and Government News

President Barack Obama kicked off his first
Twitter town hall with -- what else? -- a tweet.
Using a laptop set up on a podium in the East Room of the White House, Obama typed this message: "In order to reduce the deficit,
what costs would you cut and what investments would you keep?"

Obama takes on 'tweeters' in Twitter town hall

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