Change.gov Takes Questions

By Michael Falcone

You’ve got questions?

The Obama transition team might have an answer.

A new feature on President-elect Barack Obama’s transition Web site, Change.gov, which allows users to submit questions and then vote on the ones they most want answered, went live on Wednesday.

The tool, “Open for Questions,” already appears to be getting traffic. As of Wednesday afternoon, users sent in roughly 1,000 questions and logged more than 70,000 votes, and those numbers were climbing higher by the minute. The Obama transition team said that some of the most popular questions would be answered “on a regular basis.”

Leading the pack was this submission from Diana in New Jersey: “What will you do to establish transparency and safeguards against waste with the rest of the Wall Street bailout money?”

Other questions in the top 10, based on user rankings, focused on what incentives Mr. Obama would provide to encourage “greener behavior across the country,” what steps he would take “to restore the Constitutional protections that have been subverted by the Bush Administration,” and whether the president-elect plans to lift the federal ban on stem cell research during his first 100 days.

“Open for Questions,” is part of the Obama team’s effort to create an online platform that provides a measure of interactivity, though the format is not a new one. The Web site, CommunityCounts, in partnership with several other organizations, has also been collecting text and video questions for the president-elect that users can vote up or down.

Change.gov also includes a discussion board where citizens can post comments on topics posed by the transition team. (The current question is: How is the current economic crisis affecting you?) The site also features a new section that lists the groups meeting with the transition team.

Comments are no longer being accepted.

Eros Wong December 10, 2008 · 4:49 pm

Here is the most interesting part about this whole process. And any interested or potential Republican presidential candidate should know if they want to win back the White House. Once this is part of the process there is NO going back.

Future contenders and administrations will be weighted agains the Obama administration for its transparency and creativity to engage the American people.

If Sarah Palin or Bobby Jindal or anyone else for that matter would like to turn back the clock after 8 years of an Obama adminstration they’ll be in serious trouble and face strong resistance. The American public will be used to a more transparent and engaging government.

Gerrie December 10, 2008 · 5:06 pm

Man oh man, you gotta love this guy.

By the time Obama leaves the white house – in 8 years- whoever comes after him will have a lot to do to not appear obsolete and old school. Barack is setting the bar to such a high level, we will only truly realize it years forward.

Tucker B. December 10, 2008 · 5:18 pm

I think that change.gov is a great tool for the American people. Never beofore has a president-elect been so much in touch with the people. It is a great idea, and I think that it will help many more people find out about our future president. //www.electionweb.blogspot.com

Roz December 10, 2008 · 5:23 pm

Now all the trolls who frequent this site and others can pose their questions/conspiracy theories as questions on this site and hopefully be enlightened with honest, truthful, factual information. Why rely on any other source than the source itself?

The Obama administration will change the “game” of how governing works. Old school politicians need to sign up for html classes now.

Tucker B. December 10, 2008 · 5:35 pm

This is a truly amazing idea. Obama and his Transition Team have really done a great job with this site. It edcates he American people, and gives them a chance to look at his future Administration. //www.electionweb.blogspot.com

Anty Lopez in Manhattan December 10, 2008 · 5:36 pm

oh brother?? please then explain this photo of you, Obama and this man who you are now distancing yourself from.

//baarswestside.blogspot.com/2008/07/obama-and-blagojevich.html

Anty Lopez in Manhattan December 10, 2008 · 5:41 pm

this new site is coddling so much to the ill informed American idol, incessant texting, game playing, $300 iphone buying , gotta have the latest gadget to distract myself from actually interacting with real people, generation.
do you Obama loving idol worshippers really believe that any except the first few comments are going to get read?

I would get “emails” from David Blouffe? and Michelle Obama from the campaign all the time asking me how did Obama do and I responded with truthful negative feedback and all one gets back is a form stock response, saying like “…thank you for your support blah blah ..” all the while my message was clear that i was not a supporter. let the young voters learn the hard way, this is NOT Change.

Dave Cake December 10, 2008 · 6:02 pm

while all of the hateful Republican eyes are on chicago, President Elect Obama is focused on the States he narrowly lost. In 2012 the beating for the dried up GOP will be unbearable.

matt December 10, 2008 · 6:29 pm

But does this really make a difference? Having a dialogue with a staffer is nice, but they’re not really going to accomplish anything with this.

//www.political-buzz.com/

Jack Cohen December 10, 2008 · 6:31 pm

Finally, after a long time! In all my adult life, the presidents that have served the country have vacilated from fair to poor. There is celebration that we’re going to have an intelligent, competent president. Isn’t that the way it’s supposed to be?

Francis Edmonds, Berlin December 10, 2008 · 7:09 pm

Re #6 and #7 (negatives from Anty Lopez in Manhattan).
This is for Anty and all others who think the same way.

This is a fantastic idea for applying information technology, one well worth trying out. Everybody will have to wait a couple years before its actual effects can be evaluated.

Anty, It seems to me that if they introduced an alternative message for negative feedback, it would read something like “thank you for your interest….” but that would not change your attitude.

Anty, if you participate in the system by expressing your negative views, you are supporting the system. The presumption is that you want to help Obama’s team do things better by telling them what you feel is not right.

To support the system better, use it constructively. Vote for the good ideas of other users, send in your own ideas, try to send in ideas that attract lots of votes from other users.

I make these suggestions even though I have yet to use the system myself. After all, I have been living in Germany for over half my life, so my priority is Europe, not the USA. However, I am very happy about Obama and I hope his system works because then we will need it in Europe too.

Robert Bliss, MI December 10, 2008 · 7:36 pm

@ Anty Lopez,

All right, I’ll try to explain the photo. President-elect Obama was a Senator from Illinois. Helmet Head was (and unfortunately still is for the moment) the governor of Illinois.

They’ve met.

Assuming anything further than that simply from that photo is, any reasonable person must see, unfairly biased.

McFly December 10, 2008 · 7:42 pm

Yo, Anty Lopez at post #7. So all those campaign ads are phony, huh? My friend in Phoenix was kicking back one evening at home last summer. The phone rang, he picked it up and a voice said “Hello, this is Barack Obama…” It was – Barack Obama.
Is there something wrong with a government; of the people, by the people, for the people communicating with it’s citizens? I’d say it’s high time.

wdonelson December 11, 2008 · 5:01 am

Excellent !

The complete opposite of the Cheney-Bush cabal.

InstantGratification December 11, 2008 · 6:44 am

Obama was very concerned about giving up his Blackberry [and was trying to work out a deal with the Secret Service so he could keep it despite knowing that keeping it made him vulnerable to security risks] because he felt he would “lose touch with everyday ordinary Americans” on issues that affect our daily lives, and if that occurred, he would start living in that infamous “Bush Bubble” that has caused prior POTUS’s to remain completely oblivious to our problems. [Remember back in the Spring when a reporter said something to Bush about gasoline going up to $4 /g and Bush replied with that look of a deer in the headlights expression on his face that he hadn’t heard that?].

This website may prevent Obama from ever becoming a POTUS whose approval ratings could ever dip to any low because he will have his sights on the immediate pulse of the public. It is a terrific method of staying in touch with us and for us to remain informed with more transparency of government ever provided to Americans. And as others have posted, there is NO GOING BACK. Other administrations will have no choice but to follow his blueprint whether they want to or not so that, NEVER AGAIN, will we ever have any Cheney SECRECY! It’s our government and we want it back and Obama is providing us that opportunity.

Jeff December 11, 2008 · 8:37 am

This integration of Internet tools with politics is truly revolutionary. I commend President Obama for what he is doing and I hope that the whole country gets on board for things like this. It is a great mechanism for getting citizen involvement and definitely 4 steps in the opposite direction of our current leader.

Obama has used so many different ways online to connect with constituents, check out this study by an Internet consulting company, //www.spartaninternet.com/2008, that examines his use of the net for the election process. Change is coming, and he’s doing it online!

DrSteve December 11, 2008 · 1:04 pm

Interesting you would bring this up, since they’re burying questions that might inconvenience or embarrass the President-Elect:

//www.politico.com/blogs/bensmith/1208/Blagojevich_questions_censored_on_Transition_site.html

To the many Obama supporters here, let me pose a question: How will the President-Elect reconcile his oft-repeated statement that “if you like your health care coverage you can keep it” under his plan, with the fact that his proposal is “play or pay,” and ultimately it’s employers who decided whether employees retain their coverage or get pushed into the “public option”? 151 million of us have employer-provided coverage, and Lewin Group’s estimates on Edwards’ very similar play or pay plan said as many as 50 million people who currently have employer-provided health insurance would be moved to the public program via the decisions of their employers. That’s not “keeping it if you like it.” I was never able to get anyone from the Obama campaign to answer that question. Can you?

generation O December 15, 2008 · 2:03 pm

hey, anty lopez at #7– i got news for you, the technology is here to stay. you would be better off learning about it and embracing it, rather than continuing to be a cranky mccain-type who is angry at all of this new-fangled technology.

what obama is doing is adapting with the times, rather than relying on letters and voicemails to get things done for the people who contact him. if you’re longing for the good old days, by all means, tell us which president did a better job at interacting with the direct demands of the american public?

and by the way, if you got hundreds of thousands of emails a day, as i’m sure the campaign did during the election season, you would probably have a stock response too.

Chris December 16, 2008 · 6:42 pm

I can send a snail mail letter or an email to the POTUS now and get teh same kind of response one woudl get from this propoganda tool.

I bet the response is even signed “Barry” since he is a friend to the common man