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Obama and Foreign Roundtables

There has been so much talk and analysis of the first overseas trip by President Obama; I will just comment on the discussion that he had during a student roundtable in Turkey. After a question regarding the European future of Turkey, Obama talked about the Sarkozy opposition to Turkey EU membership and in answering he said: "You'll probably have to ask him directly, so maybe when he comes here, he'll have a townhall meeting like this one".



After seeing the video I sensed that there was a bit of sarcasm in the President’s answer. But he makes a good point; foreign leaders do not have townhall meetings with the public in most of their trips. It is one of a first for US Presidents as well. I do not know if he is going to insist in having these meetings in future trips, and whether other politicians will follow his example. Then again some politicians do not know, or are afraid of this sort of open discussions, with no moderation or formal Q&A. You do not know the questions and yes sometimes you will slip, or your answer might not be as compressive; but you will have engaged with the public.


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