WORLD> America
Obama seizes bully pulpit online to pitch budget
(Agencies)
Updated: 2009-03-27 07:56

He threw bouquets of praise to nurses who helped the family when his daughter Sasha was stricken with meningitis and returned with vigor to a recounting of the experience of watching his fatally ill mother argue with an insurance company to pay what it owed her for ovarian cancer treatment.

In a lighter moment, Obama noted there had been heavy support for a question about legalizing marijuana as a means of boosting the economy and creating jobs.

"The answer is, no, I don't think that is a good strategy to grow our economy," he quipped. The in-house audience tittered.

The president did not make news, but ran smoothly through answers to questions posed to him on the White House Web site and chosen according to rankings by respondents. A moderator read Obama some of the questions and other questions were displayed on monitors in the room.

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And with more than 100,000 questions submitted for the forum, it gave the administration a significant number of e-mail addresses for future outreach and the next campaign.

The economy dominated, allowing Obama to sell his agenda for putting the country on a sounder footing in the midst of the worst economic downturn in decades and a financial crisis unmatched since the 1930s.

One questioner asked why the US did not adopt a European-style government-sponsored health care system.

Because, Obama responded, he believed the best way forward was to build on the current system that relies heavily on employer plans rather than scrap what has existed for generations and largely has met the need of a majority of Americans.

Nevertheless, he said, any overhaul must cope with the country's institutions that aren't easily transformed, specifically pointing to Medicare and Medicaid, as well as the millions of Americans who are uninsured.

Detroit automakers, he said, must evolve or face extinction. He promised more help to the struggling industry but demanded a new way of doing business.

"A lot of it's going to depend on their (the auto industry's) willingness to make some pretty drastic changes. And some of those are still going to be painful," he said.

As reflected in the Internet questioning, housing was near the top of American concerns, prompting Obama to urge mortgage refinancing for the 40 percent of American homeowners that he said were eligible under his programs. Mortgage rates have hit record lows.

Obama appeared off balance only once, in an exchange with Bonnee Breese, a Philadelphia high school teacher in the East Room audience who questioned the president about charter schools and his efforts to improve the national teaching corps.

"OK, so you've been teaching for 15 years," Obama said at one point, directly addressing Breese and laughing. "I'll bet you'll admit that during those 15 years there have been a couple of teachers that you've met -- you don't have to say their names -- who you would not put your child in their classroom. See? Right? You're not saying anything. You're taking the Fifth."

Obama was clearly teasing Breese, who turned her head away, seemingly in embarrassment or disagreement.

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