I read the AMA while it was in progress, as I could through the downtime, and I read the summary post in the thread afterwards before all of this discussion on HN.
What exactly do you expect? The POTUS to, simply because he is on reddit, to suddenly say "By the way, I smoked pot, I'm an athiest, I think the RIAA is evil, etc.?"
He is the current President and actively campaigning for re-election, and he stated up front that he had 30 minutes to burn to "personally" answer questions. To expect this AMA to have gone any other way is simply naive. Regardless of what you believe politics are or should be, expecting anything different is neglecting the reality of modern politics.
The assertion that holding my politicians to a higher standard than playing word games is naive? That kind of apathetic thinking is exactly what allows the kind of things that stem from Washington to continue, people think it's naive and fruitless to speak up, so no one ever does.
Why can't we express a desire for something better, while knowing full well that Obama is a politician and, like just about any American politician, got into office by avoiding hard questions and giving the answers the great unwashed masses want to hear?
What exactly do you expect? The POTUS to, simply because he is on reddit, to suddenly say "By the way, I smoked pot, I'm an athiest, I think the RIAA is evil, etc.?"
He is the current President and actively campaigning for re-election, and he stated up front that he had 30 minutes to burn to "personally" answer questions. To expect this AMA to have gone any other way is simply naive. Regardless of what you believe politics are or should be, expecting anything different is neglecting the reality of modern politics.