Later this afternoon President Obama will participate in a joint Google/YouTube event where he’ll take pre-submitted questions from the public and participate in a live virtual discussion in a "Google Hangout" which is Google's fancy term for a video conference.
But last week, Vice President Biden participated in his first Twitter interview. Basically, people asked questions on Twitter and the Vice President answered some of them. It turns out that the vetting process may need some tweaking since apparently the Vice President answered a perfectly valid question on education reform from a West Wing character.
We present to you exhibit A:
And exhibit B:
If that doesn't blow your pop culture, political geek, social media mind, absolutely nothing will. You can check out all of the Vice President's answers via Storify here.
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Ah, it's nice to see some of the long-standing Maddowblog regulars managing to get a post in between Steve's! I really think he's an outstanding addition to TRMS staff but I hope his presence doesn't crowd out bits such as Best Noon Thing and The Week In Geek. Among all of the others.
Thanks for chiming in. It's helpful to hear.
Looks like he also brought with him some boosters and trolls from his previous engagement.
Hey y'all! We were here FIRST!
I don't see how this is a vetting issue.
Don't really see the vetting issue. Valid question.
Any idea who it is tweeting as Joshua Lyman?
We all do our own tweeting.
I'll take that as a "no" to my question. Or "I know but won't say." :-)
Don't really see the vetting issue here. What's wrong with answering a valid question from Josh Lyman?
Cool.
Just the coolest president ever.
And West Wing wants to share the cool.
Why would Josh need to be vetted? He's learned a lot since his disastrous early days on the Internet.
That's true - the only way this could be better is if it was actually on the website Lemon Lyman.
Biden should've tweeted him back under "@LemonLyman."
I don't see the problem. Did it ever occur to you that Lyman is actually a family name? In fact, there is a town in Wyoming named Lyman, so-named after the founding family, if I remember correctly. This might have actually been a real person named Joshua Lyman.
Except the twitter profile pic is of the character. (or really the actor who played the character, same diff in this context). Now it still could be an actual Joshua Lyman who adopted the pic, but unlikely.
Ah, Al Roderick. I wouldn't have known that. I don't watch much TV, and never got into that series. Though I did catch the bit about the "Dr." Laura rebuttal Martin Sheen did in his character as president.
Oh how I miss Bradley Whitford as Josh Lyman!
I guess I agree with most who don't see the point in trying to vet twitter users. Twitter certainly allows anonymous and identity hiding users so that is just part of the deal there. The questions seem to be perfectly vetted and that is all that really matters. No news here.
Because it's a parody account. If @darthvader asked if Pres Obama had any advice to give to young men who are growing up without a father in their lives, it would be a valid question (and relevant to Anakin's story) ... but he'd still look silly giving an earnest answer to a fictional character.
So we should ignore the "press conference" that Kermit and Miss Piggy gave (and highlighted at this blog)? :-)
Let me google 'false equivalence' for you.
The Muppets are fictional characters were "interviewed' while promoting their movie. They weren't taking questions on policy. They were asked about how they've been used by pundits to forward a political agenda.
Biden was taking questions from citizens about policy. He was asked a question by a fictional character. It's not the same thing.
If you wanted to make a comparison to Fox News' insistence that the fictional Muppet characters should be the center of political debates, that would be valid.
But no. Just because both situations involved fictional characters does not make it the equivalent. Just because both dogs and cats have fur doesn't make them the same animal.
It's not the first time that the White House has fielded questions from the Bartlet Administration - Robert Gibbs responded to a Twitter question posted by the ghost of Leo McGarry:
http://thehill.com/blogs/twitter-room/other-news/132417-white-house-takes-twitter-question-from-ghost-of-fictional-character
Regarding the NDAA, perhaps we can discuss whether or not civilians can be indefinitely detained, or at least the limitations - if any - between the arrest of a person and their date in front of a judge. Two years in solitary for a man in New Mexico arrested on a DWI without seeing a judge is, at best, reprehensibly unconstitutional.
Perhaps we should start asking questions on when exactly the judicial process takes place and when things like, trial-by-jury, habeas corpus, and due process no longer apply. At the very least, perhaps we should discuss the consequences for leaving gaps in place that allow people like Steven Slevin to slip through the cracks.
Just about all the WW characters have Twitter accounts, and just about all follow and interact with each other. Pres. Josiah Bartlet tweets as @Pres_Bartlet -- very true to character. I don't know if it's organized, per se, but they're dedicated tweeters and fun to follow.
Is it really possible to combine my love of Rachel AND The West Wing? I think I just had a never-mind.
Perhaps it's actually Bradley Whitford using the moniker of JoshuaLyman (I notice DonnaMoss has chimed in above as well)? We can only hope. I'm satisfied with the current president/VP ticket, but if Jed Bartlet were on the ballot, I'd vote for him in a heartbeat. Where are the compassionate candidates are more concerned with addressing issues and solving problems than beating each other (and citizens) down?
With limited time, I avoid Twitter. But the Bartlet administration...I loved them! Now I have to check them out.
You have to get Josh ... not existing is not really an obstacle for him. Let's get @Lawrence to do a rewrite on this ... of course, he'll have to be Pres. Bartlet's father ...
#WWW=WestWingWithdrawl
I miss Josh and I have WWW for sure!
i will vote for him one 2 conditions: 1) lower the drinking age to 18 (preferably 16) and 2) cease and desist with suspension of habeas corpus a la the defense of blah blah blah bill aka patriot act on steriods
Except the twitter profile pic is of the character. (or really the actor who played the character, same diff in this context). Now it still could be an actual Joshua Lyman who adopted the pic, but unlikely.