Free Republic

Too-long answers, questions from familiar foes instead of regular folks—the president’s much hyped social-media meeting was even less interesting than a regular town hall, says David A. Graham. The hour-long event proved to be even less interesting than the average town hall. Just like Obama’s April 19 town hall with Mark Zuckerberg, the event featured the president facing a younger entrepreneur; this time, however, there was the added annoyance of Twitter as simplifying middleman. It all started off well enough. After brief remarks by Twitter co-founder Jack Dorsey, the president ambled in, stepped up to a laptop adorned with a...

Obama: I Underestimated Magnitude Of The Recession        Advertisements [?]   Source: Talking Points Memo President Obama openly acknowledged underestimating the length and magnitude of the worst recession since the Great Depression in a response to a question during his Twitter town hall. Always a tough question to answer, Obama was asked what mistakes he made in handling the economic crisis and what he would have done differently looking back on his first months in office. Obama freely admitted that he would have tried to do a better job explaining "to the American people it was going to take a...

Wednesday’s so-called Twitter town hall meeting conducted by President Barack Obama was certainly unprecedented. But was it a sign of trouble at Obama reelection headquarters in Chicago? Over the past few weeks, Democrats in Washington, D.C., have been driving the message of “shared sacrificed” as it pertains to the federal government’s fiscal policy going forward in dealing with record deficit and debt issues. But in an appearance on Wednesday’s “The Laura Ingraham Show,” National Journal congressional correspondent Major Garrett explained there were some unresolved questions, especially when it comes to the question of what Americans are getting for their sacrifice....

Barack Obama will hold a Twitter townhall today where he will field and answer questions with the #AskObama hashtag. Recently, Obama indicated that he will regularly tweet himself from his Twitter handle, @BarackObama. Obama and his team are late to the game. And though he will never admit it, Obama would not be tweeting or having Twitter townhalls if it weren’t for the way former Alaska Gov. and potential presidential candidate Sarah Palin became Twitter’s trailblazer. In fact, I have said Palin should be properly referred to as “The Great CommuniTweeter.” On April 29, 2009, Palin, then using the handle...

American Grassroots Coalition SPECIAL INVITE You are invited to a Tele-TownHall with Senator Jim DeMint (SC) to discuss the US Budget/Debt Ceiling and the Cut, Cap & Balance Pledge. When: Wednesday, July 6th Time: 9:00 PM EST / 6:00 PM PST Conference Number: 712.432.3100 Code: 160992 Please join us for this special tele-townhall with Senator Jim DeMint (SC). This call is not just for leaders, but for all activists.  Please share this with others so that they too can hear what Senator DeMint has to say about our financial crisis.  He has volunteered to do this call because he wants...

The President of the United States will be taking your questions about jobs and the economy on July 6 at 2 p.m. EDT over Twitter for what is being billed as the first Twitter town hall. Those interested in asking him a question can use the hashtag #AskObama and follow @townhall to hear his answers. While we don't yet know how the president will choose which questions he answers or how long the tweeting session will last, check out Twitter's special page dedicated to the event for more information.

Team Obama is looking more desperate these days. The signs of desperation are clearly visible—Obama playing to a half-packed house in Miami, Obama using increasingly shrill arguments that his job creation efforts are working, Geithner’s threats regarding the debt ceiling and the Democrat-influenced mainstream media’s increasing criticisms of the Republican slate of presidential primary candidates. If Obama’s policies are so successful and if the country is doing so well, why do Americans see this growing desperation in Team Obama? Team Obama’s desperation seems to stem from a fear of the unknown—how will it be possible for them to win congressional...

Congressman /Majority Whip Kevin McCarthy Talks About the Debt, Fields Questions from Bakersfield Tea Party Patriots at Bakersfield Townhall Meeting (Video). On Saturday, June 11, Kevin McCarthy joined the Bakersfield Tea Party for a Townhall meeting. About 75 patriots were on hand for breakfast and an opportunity to ask direct questions about the budget, debt ceiling, energy dependence, our nation's continued involvement in Libya, and other current issues and concerns. As the Majority Whip, McCarthy is the person who is tasked with gauging and building consensus within the Republican House. His unique role in Congress afforded the Tea Party an...

Tim Pawlenty facebook twonhall meeting. Please join. http://www.facebook.com/TimPawlenty

Rep. Allen West, R-Plantation, delivered a vintage performance Tuesday — full of confidence, never backing down — even when facing a somewhat restive audience posing sometimes hostile questions. Judging from the applause, most of the town hall audience of about 300 at the Pompano Beach Civic Center was supportive of West. And when several people who didn't like the congressman, what he was saying, or the format interrupted with shouts from the floor, the majority's displeasure was clear. Anne Deon, of Fort Lauderdale, repeatedly yelled out a demand that Congress increase taxes on big corporations and people in the crowd...

Join us as we kick off the Tea Party Cyber Tour on May 18th from 2:00 – 3:00pm EST with presidential candidate Herman Cain. This tele-forum, townhall style event will be moderated by nationally syndicated radio talk show host, Rusty Humphries, and gives you the opportunity to ask questions. To participate in this event, please submit your information below, and we will call you around 2:00 pm EST next Wednesday, May 18th. Join the conversation on Twitter by using the hashtag #teacyber http://theteaparty.net/tea-party-cyber-tour/herman-cain/

Dan Webster would be hard-pressed to make himself heard in a library. So the soft-spoken congressman didn't have a chance Tuesday when his town-hall meeting turned into a political food fight. It seems liberal activists learned a lesson from the tea party. They came; they shouted; they disrupted. It worked for the tea party in attacking Democrats over ObamaCare. And it is working for liberals in attacking Republicans over RyanCare. The Webster town hall was covered by National Public Radio and reported not only on our front page but also on the front page of The New York Times.We love...

The left will have to do better than this. Not only is West predictably unperturbed by the heckling but the crowd is overwhelmingly on his side. You’d think progressives would be out in force to try to embarrass a tea-party all-star, but no. In fact, see the woman being hauled away by security at the end? That’s Nicole Sandler, formerly of … Air America. When the big dissident presence at a rally is a host from a defunct radio network, you’ve got yourself an optics problem.Read this Andrew Stiles post at NRO arguing that the public might be more open...

Local police arrested a woman who appears to be former liberal radio network Air America host Nicole Sandler while she was disrupting Rep. Allen West’s Tuesday town hall event in Fort Lauderdale and harassing the Congressman’s wife. According to video obtained by Florida blogger Javier Manjarres, known better online as The Shark Tank, police charged Sandler, who revealed her name on camera, with trespassing after they removed her from the event and she “continued her tirade and used an expletive to address a police officer.” With Air America now defunct, Sandler hosts a self-described “progressive talk radio” show at RadioOrNot.com....

A town hall meeting held in Orlando by U.S. Rep. Dan Webster degenerated into bedlam Tuesday, with members of the crowd shouting down the freshman Republican congressman and yelling at one another. It was the last of a series of town hall meetings Webster has hosted during Congress' spring recess, which ends Monday. While the others were civil and largely uneventful, the 300 people at Tuesday's meeting were so raucous they were scolded by a police officer to act "like grown people." Webster tried to go over a series of charts showing growing levels of federal spending and debt, and...

Obama Facebook Event Goes 'Unavailable' After Conservatives Flood It With ‘Repeal Obamacare’ Posts Thursday, April 21, 2011 By Fred Lucas (CNSNews.com) – On Wednesday, President Barack Obama’s town hall meeting on Facebook was “unavailable” to viewers for 39 minutes after it was flooded with comments by a conservative group’s “online army” demanding that the president “repeal Obamacare,” the administration’s health care reform law enacted in March of last year. For 39 minutes during the president’s “Shared Responsibility and Shared Prosperity” Facebook event, a screenshot displayed the message: “Event Unavailable. We’re sorry, this event isn’t working right now. Please try again...

Despite the promise that President Obama's first Facebook town hall would open a new level of two-way communication with his constituents, social-networking technology didn't add much to the conversation. Obama answered just eight questions during Wednesday's hour-long session at Facebook's secondary headquarters building in Palo Alto Facebook employees who won a company lottery for the chance to sit in the live audience. That left hundreds of questions posted on the event's Facebook wall unanswered. Judging from comments posted on Facebook after the event, viewers noticed. "Not bad, but not great," wrote Rose Berendes. "How could there not have been a...

UPDATE: I'm sorry to say that I haven't been able to find any video clips from Katie's April 8, 2011 appearance on Red Eye with Greg Gutfeld. :(Katie Pavlich is currently the Assistant Editor at Townhall.com and a weekly guest on the Jon Justice show on 1041thetruth.comIn the past: Contributing Editor at Townhall.com/Townhall Magazine Intern at Townhall.com Intern for Senator Jon KylHere are her columns at Townhall.comHere are her posts from "The Tipsheet" at Townhall.com Her appearances from the "We the People" podcast.Her youtube account.Katie graduated in May 2010 from the University of Arizona. Here are some youtube videos that...

Congratulations to former Alaska Governor Sarah Palin who won the March Townhall/HotAir Straw Poll with 16.91% of the vote! For the second straight month Texas Congressman Ron Paul came in right behind her, this time amassing 16.02%. The results are starting to get really close in comparison to the previous months. Minnesota Representative Michele Bachmann was the mover and shaker this month, gaining 1.47 percentage points. New Jersey Governor Chris Christie saw the biggest decrease in support, losing 1.42 percentage points. The second biggest decrease come from the winner Sarah Palin at 1.23 percentage points. Is this an indication that...

I had the chance to sit in tonight on a blogger conference call with potential 2012 Presidential candidate Herman Cain. It shouldn’t surprise any long-time readers of The Shack when I say I’m a fan of Cain’s as a candidate and as a person. Though he has yet to announce his candidacy, he has formed an exploratory committee and has visited several of the early primary and caucus states to gauge interest in a run and to lay some groundwork if he decides to do so. I had hoped to connect to the call with Skype and record it, so...