President Obama participates in an online chat, Aug. 29. 2012. (Reddit)
President Obama made a surprise appearance online on Wednesday, participating in a live chat on Reddit.com.
“Hi, I’m Barack Obama, President of the United States,” Obama wrote in a message on the site. “Ask me anything.”
The post prompted immediate skepticism about its authenticity, so the commander in tweet offered some proof, posting a message on Twitter linking to the Reddit chat and providing a “verification photo” (above) featuring the president typing on his MacBook Air One.
The chat—part of Reddit’s “Ask Me Anything” series—was prefaced with a message from Obama about Isaac:
Hey everybody – this is barack. Just finished a great rally in Charlottesville, and am looking forward to your questions. At the top, I do want to say that our thoughts and prayers are with folks who are dealing with Hurricane Isaac in the Gulf, and to let them know that we are going to be coordinating with state and local officials to make sure that we give families everything they need to recover.
More than 10,000 questions were submitted; President Obama responded to 10 of them—mostly those that were popular among (and promoted by) Reddit users. Like this one: “What was the most difficult decision that you had to make during this term?”
Obama’s response:
The decision to surge our forces in afghanistan. Any time you send our brave men and women into battle, you know that not everyone will come home safely, and that necessarily weighs heavily on you. The decision did help us blunt the taliban’s momentum, and is allowing us to transition to afghan lead—so we will have recovered that surge at the end of this month, and will