In Times of Crisis….Obama Campaigns on Facebook

The United States is involved in a no-fly zone over Libya in an effort to stop Muammar Gaddafi’s attempts to attack the rebels revolting against his regime. Our ally Japan has been dealing with the aftermath of a catastrophic earthquake and tsunami. Oh, and there is a possibility of a government shutdown, we’re enduring a massive budget crisis, and the unemployment rate is at 9.2%.

So, what is the President to do (other than play golf) in times of crisis? Campaign!

On April 20, President Obama will be meeting with Mark Zuckerberg at the Facebook headquarters in Palo Alto, California where he will conduct a streaming interview, town-hall-style, through the social network. He will be responding to questions that Facebook members have posted on the website in addition to questions posted on the White House website. Stephen Reilly, a New Jersey Native living in Subail, Saudi Arabia, has already asked “Going into the next 18 months (and hopefully the next 4 years after that), what are your administration’s top three priorities, and how do you expect to accomplish them?” President Obama will also be taking questions from his audience of 1,000 Facebook employees, small business leaders and Silicon Valley entrepreneurs.

President Obama has also had town hall meetings on YouTube, and is also the first President to send a Tweet. In his 2008 campaign, Obama reached a young demographic through advertisements in 18 different video games (that people paid for), including Guitar Hero and Madden09.

It will be interesting to see how many people tune into Facebook Live on April 20. Let s not forget, however, that first lady Michelle Obama said that she is not a big fan of young kids having Facebook.

—Melanie Wilcox