It now seems likely that President Obama will be asked to answer the top vote-getter at YouTube (today at 2:30 pm EST)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zbz9lnVbrwc
Here is my prediction of his non-answer (note that I waited to post this until shortly before so he couldn’t steal it!)
Thanks for your question, and for your valuable service to our Nation. I understand that the specifics of how we deal with the scourge of drugs and related violence can be a divisive issue. In the past, we have not focused enough on treatment and prevention, which is why my National Drug Control Strategy calls for a balanced approach to drug policy, and I’ve backed that up with a significant increase in funding for treatment efforts.
Hearing the concerns of the men and women in blue is important to me. As I talk to law enforcement groups around the country, they tell me about the horrific impact of drugs on the children in their communities, and it makes me even more certain that we cannot and will not surrender in this critical fight.
Note: This is not his answer. It’s my prediction of his answer.
Update:
Here it is. If you only listen to the first 11 words of his answer, it’s a great answer, and the best we could hope for…
President Obama: “Well, I think this is an entirely legitimate topic for debate.”
Here’s that version:
Here’s the actual full answer:
So you’re the guy responsible for what’s written on the teleprompter, Pete! 🙂
My prediction is your prediction is right on the money.
My prediction is he’ll turn it into another joke:
“most popular question…heh, heh, heh, I wonder what that says about the Law Enforcement community”.
I predict he will not answer the #1 question but will pick one of the dumb questions from the list and laugh it off.
If he does answer that #1 question as you predict,will main stream media be inquisitive enough to interview the LEAP people about it?
fox news mentioned the overwhelming disparity of cannabis/DPR topics: http://bit.ly/gMrTCs
Do you think they might be starting to get the message?:
“We are very concerned.”
25 minutes until we find out if he will receive support for his next election from not only advocates but many
str8s that are very interested in his answer to these questions.
We are not alone in wanting the 16 billion dollars per year just too the ONDCP drug war cut back.
Mainstream Media Finally Recognizing That Americans Want Marijuana Law Reform
http://blog.norml.org/2011/01/27/msm-recognizing-that-americans-want-marijuana-law-reform/
He will have to sacrifice his support from the rich to get the support of We The People.
I think Obamacare was more about his ego than it was about healthcare.If he wants to make sure he gets into the history books then this is his chance. Because the name of the man who brings back industrial hemp will never be forgotten.This could be his sputnik moment.(NOT)
Will he stop ignoring the masses today?…Please start new diolog today…There are 20,000,000 mj users…they got you elected believing and needing charge on drug law….you know it’s a medicine, change the law …your respect ratings will go up and stay up once Americans realize that their hopes in you were not in vain. Marijuana Law Reform, Change everything concerning marijuana and do your fellow citizens a great favor…it is so much safer than deception.
That move would endear him to millions, and change the very nature of the “Justice System” in this country. It would make his place in history, and it could get him re-elected.
Naw.
Here is a paragraph from a huffpost article on this subject I thought you guys might like to see.
“Of the top 100 most popular questions as rated by YouTube users, 99 are about the drug war or pot. Of the next one hundred, 99 are again about drug policy. Somehow, two questions about clean energy made their way into the top 200.”
My guess is that the President will acknowlege the overwhelming numbers of questions relating to the drug war and then spew some prohibitionist crapola while snickering then move on to the “serious” questions.
I predict that we will be completely ignored. No mention whatsoever. Absent even the spiteful chuckle.
He will ignore us like he has ignored the middle class when he promised change and transparency in his administration and gave us exactly the opposite of what he promised. Color me totally unsurprised.
I can’t believe I am actually watching this waiting to see his answer…. again. I don’t think I can take much more….
Obama behaves like a frat boy who went through some disgusting hazing to become puffed as President.
Expect nothing on this from any such frat boy- aka Pawlenty, McCaine, Palin, etc.
Pete nailed it.
Kind of a standard answer, but he did say it is a debate we should have, so I guess thats something, no laughs, no jokes, serious question and serious answer. I guess I wasn’t disappointed, at least he encouraged debate. Now will that actually happen? I think it is more and more every day.
Just like the Peanuts comic where Lucy would repeatedly hold a football and urge Charlie Brown to kick it, and then pull it away at the last minute causing him great anguish, we will be victimized again.
The sadistic joy that Lucy feels at the misery of others is a character flaw shared by many in our government.
I hope I’m wrong.
…or you get this feeling that everything coming out of Obama’s mouth sounds like any adult in the TV version of Peanuts. Wa, wah wah wah, wa…
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hw0ghmUS05o&feature=player_embedded#
^^Obama’s response.
I’m not even going to watch it. I figure I’ll wait and let you guys analyse it. I’m done with that F**ker.
I’m guessing he’s only responding to one question about drug policy reform? There’s a reason that we voted up a hundred of them to the top of the list. Addressing only one of them and moving on to multiple questions in the other topics is ignoring our questions. This is a farce.
And Obama pulled the Schwarzenegger. “Now I don’t support it but I’m open for a discussion.” Translation “I am a political vagina who is afraid to say what I said January 21st 2004 on camera again so hopefully this tricks you dopers into thinking I support you so you re-elect me. Oh and also do all the drug law reform work for me, because like I said I Am A Political Vagina.”
You had your chance Obama, I’m voting Gary Johnson.
Yeah, it makes me laugh how people think that the Democrats are somehow any more concerned about civil liberty and self ownership than the Republicans after so many lessons that should have taught us otherwise.
Democrates and republicans….two sides of the same coin.
How about “Dear people who I’m completely dismissing with my silly “heh heh drugs” grin. I’m a limp dick. Floppy and without any strength to start, let alone finish a job?” yeah. you say vagina, I say limp dick. Or, we could stop using our innocent genitals as insults for politicians? Our genitals should be treated with more respect and really, they needn’t be sullied in such a manner. 😉
Anyways, I wanted to yell at my screen during his snide response at the start.
“(heh heh heh drugs) We had a lot of those [questions regarding prohibition/drug war] last year as well!”
GHA! What the fuck? Yes, sir, you did and you ignored and dismissed us as a joke. You forget about that bit did you?
He still sees the ‘Drug War Problem’ to be something that needs to be ignored. We are people to be talked down to and “helped” because we have a ‘Drug Problem’ and not a ‘Drug War Problem’ (thanks for that Pete, that’s a keeper). Well, I guess we should be grateful that he’s straight up admitted as much. No more false hopes this way, or misunderstanding.
China has recently been in negotiation with a number of countries, asking them to replace the Dollar with the Chinese Yuan as their reserve currency. This, when it happens, will remove the US’s ability to keep printing cash to cover the trillions it costs to fund prohibition. It’ll bring true freedom but the transition period will be as hectic as a slasher movie. It never had to be this way; we should have learned our lesson from studying the mayhem that alcohol prohibition wreaked on us.
This economic storm could have been easier on everyone if the politicians would have done the responsible things, like letting failing institutions fail and not bailing out the banksters and pin striped bandits. Failure is a natural, normal learning experience, but our government wants to protect us from failure. When the crash comes and, the energy from holding everything back is released, the crash will be spectacularly sad and damaging. I think to them it is a feature, not a bug.
They are like someone who has to tear the bandaid off realllllly slow so the pain is way worse and longer than it should have been.
I don’t care about the answer, I’ve got an out of control warm fuzzy that the #1 question is being asked by a cop against prohibition. My 1978 self is doing a really good rendition of Fred Sanford, it’s the big one Elizabeth.
Bingo! That’s the real win.
As expected Pete,he wants to continue incarceration but add more drug courts,rehab centers and probation fees to the mix.
In other words,they are going to increase costs,increase
violence and accomplish the same results.
…and make more of the ‘right’ people rich at the expense of everyone else.
Good one Ron, Sputnik moment. Heard that in his speech.
He’ll be in the history books for obvious reasons, I don’t think he gives a hoot about prohibition. And he knows he should legalize, the frakking vanity ridden prez knows this.
This man is not my friend.
It’s his attitude that is damaging.
How I wish that tomorrow’s headlines read “Obama calls drug legalization ‘A legitimate topic of debate'”.
All he had to do was ride that wave we provided for him.
Obama has just proven he’s a life form lower than a blech dick!
See? What exactly did I miss by not attending to the same old noise? It was the question and the questioner that were significant, not his mealy-mouthed response.
Dear Mr President
The reason we have changed peoples attitudes about smoking tobacco is BECAUSE IT IS LEGAL and that means we can TAX AND REGULATE IT (e.g. plaster the stuff with health warnings, control who sells it, how it’s advertised etc).
Look what happened after California passed Prop 99 (to tax and regulate tobacco) in 1988:
“The adult smoking prevalence declined by more than 40% from 22.7% to 13.3% [today]”
Why in gods name do you refuse to tax cannabis?
Notice that he put his answer in this form: “I do not BELIEVE in legalization”. Thus it’s an article of faith and not subject to argument.
What a fucking insult to the intelligence. He’s earning his corporatist blood money very well. They couldn’t have hired a better spokesman for the complex.
So Obama must be like the Creationists who say that evolution does not exist, because they don’t believe in it and their God says so, even in the face of overwhelming evidence to the contrary.
Just another politician. How can anyone look at this President, who hasn’t taken a courageous/unpopular stance on ANYTHING, and have any faith that he will deliver on any common sense, logical issue like ending drug prohibition that as we all know has no rational or scientific justification.
President Jellyfish, Hired Hand of the corporate prison-industrial complex!
This is what we should have asked:
According to testimony from the head of the Federal Bureau of Narcotics to the Senate in 1937 “the primary reason to outlaw marijuana is its effect on the degenerate races†it “makes darkies think they are as good as whites†Today we know marijuana is safer than alcohol, can you have the courage to say this outdated law is wrong?
That does it for me.
President Obama, I would now rather vote for Sarah Palin than you. And I can’t stand Sarah Palin.
Can’t wait to see his face when he is not re-elected, and I hope lots and lots of people remind him why.
Gary Johnson 2012.
So much for my innovative idea for the Obamabong. It was gonna be a nude black man with a pipestem penis,a flat head’ and a carbeaurator where his naval is. I was even gonna give him an extra large stem.
Poor little thing. Someone cut it’s nutz off when it wandered into the Oval Office one day.
It’s noticable that his attitude toward us, as a movement, hasn’t changed. He knows that “dialog” is between two or more and his side refuses to talk. They can’t even define “legalization.”
From now forward, they’ll be too busy politicking to cast any thought on our question. It’s time to prepare to cast my lot in a different direction and that’s only 644 days away.
While I’m suprised he answered at all his juvenile smile he had at the mere mention of drugs said it all for me. The totally political answer was just comfirmation that he will continue to brush off this issue for the remainder of his time in office.
Ron, my twitching lips tell me that the Obamabong surely remains an excellent and innovative idea!
And from Drug policy Alliance,right on time:
Tell President Obama to stop wasting money on the failed war on drugs.
http://dpa.convio.net/site/Advocacy?cmd=display&page=UserAction&id=627&s_src=email
Back to work and the letters and the phone calls,,,no rest for the wicked,,,and please personalize your letters!
We have not outlawed smoking, alcohol, or driving. We have simply limited the harm that those activities can do.
He goes on to say that when it comes to illegal drugs, we have been too focused on arrests and incarceration instead of shrinking demand. Going back to his 3 examples, the demand of tobacco, alcohol and driving has not been shrunk but those activities are regulated to provide protections to society.
Maybe we should say “Drug Regulation” instead of “Drug Legalization“. People hear “LEGALIZATION” and equate it with a free-for-all.
In DC they see Legalization activists as well meaning and ernest, but simply not as “knowledgable” as us policy professionals. Legalizers just don’t get it. What it is we don’t get is how they view their jobs and their job security. What we don’t get are how power and money move through DC. For politicians their views are tailored to appeal to the interests with the most money to give. For career officials their stated policy objectives are the ones that will garner the biggest budget allocations from the politicians. Only a major social revolt like the civil rights movement or the End the Viet Nam war movement will have any chance of ending the drug war at the federal level. That or a huge influx of money from donors, enough to turn the heads of politicians and get their complete and total attention. I don’t see how we’re going to be able to do either one.
Clay, it doesn’t matter if you personalize it, they treat all “petition letters” as if they were only one letter. You have to write him you own message, and not tack it to a form letter.
Cheer up kids. It’s just part of their tactics to make us feel like we have’nt got a chance. But the truth is that no cause is lost as long as there’s one fool left to fight for it. And I am that fool.
Arrrr, Ron, me matey, you’ve signed onto this entire ‘ship of fools’:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KBwWpBxu32g
I saw two things in his response. The first, he clearly doesn’t agree with prohibition but isn’t brave enough to disagree publicly, which led him to ask Gil ‘what do I say’ so he wouldn’t have to try as hard to hold back honest answers like ‘aah I used to smoke and I turned out fine’. The second is that I could almost see Gil pulling the strings. But Obama is smart, he sees where its all heading so didn’t stonewall the reform demographic completely (i.e. no drugs are evil, drug free world etc.) whilst still obfuscating enough to appeal to the status quo… I’m just glad he even answered it, gives the whole issue far more legitimacy.
Somebody want to tell him that if ‘just say no’ worked we’d have fixed this 25 years ago? Seriously, ‘reduce demand’? And more treatment. What an incurious tool.
I guess he really is a fan of Ronald Reagan.
Yesiree,regarding Clays LINK from Norml blog:Americans want Marijuana Reform.
Please Mainstream media keep reporting more and more stories on Cannabis and Media finally realizes that Americans want genuine Marijuana reform. Shazzzam!!!!
I don’t know
He didn’t totally ignore it.
He didn’t snicker (too much)
He said it is a legitimate topic for debate.
They used the video from a credible questioner (they could have used a sterotypical stoner)
I’m sort of curious if Allan considers this worthy of a “thud”
not so much “Thud” as it’s more like a Peter Sellers “bimp”…
… and for a man that plays basketball when he comes on our court the Prez sure lacks game. I’m a short old white guy with a 4” vertical leap, can only dribble right handed, but I’d whup him one-on-one. I let those 3 pointers fly… swish!… swish!… and who cares I can’t jump or dribble (metaphorically speaking) ’cause I still got game (and I do have a sweet high-arch long shot).
Here’s another new word for y’alls’ perusal – hypnocritosis – the process of lulling an intended audience to sleep by using hypocritical positions infinitely (think train tracks)
Yup, a non answer.
Direct people toward the “treatment” industry,court industry and the prison industry.
What a tool
Oh well, it wont be long and our debt will be greater than our GDP… better duck MR president, your pretty tall, you’ll hit that ceiling before most.
There is an anti-treatment industry Public Health Academic who teaches at The University of Sydney (Australia).
He has put together a helpful presentation to show how disinterested people are in smoking cessation interventions that don’t involve costly treatment by ‘experts’:
http://addiction-neuroethics.viviti.com/files/documents/Simon-Chapman.pdf
He usefully points out that: