Anthony De Rosa

A social media first occurred this evening when President Barack Obama held a Google+ Hangout to take live questions from five Americans and a few people who were taped beforehand, including a homeless veteran and an Occupy protester.

He answered questions about the economy, job creation, small business, and the use of drones in Iraq and Afghanistan. Obama referenced a New York Times story on the use of drones, which he called “overwritten,” and said that the use of drones had not resulted in an unusual number of civilian casualties. Asked about the anti-piracy legislation that set the Internet on fire, Obama said, ”When SOPA came up on the hill, we expressed some concerns about the way the legislation had been written.”

Almost as fascinating as the Hangout itself was the discussion of the Hangout on Twitter.

Many wondered who chose which questions were posed to the president from the more than 130,000 submissions. Alex Howard, who covers “open government” for O’Reilly Media, said Steve Grove, head of community partnerships at Google+, picked the questions.

Was it a campaign stunt, an ad for Google, a great opportunity for citizens to connect with the president, or all of the above?

The videoconference lasted thirty minutes and ended with a request for the president to show off some dance moves. He declined, but suggested he might use a future opportunity to sing. “In some future Google+, I may sing another tune,” he said.

I hear he does a great Al Green.

Update: CNN’s Security Blog points out that during the Hangout, Obama casually admitted to drone strikes in Pakistan

“a lot of these strikes have been in the FATA, and going after al Qaeda suspects who are up in very tough terrain on the border between Afghanistan and Pakistan. For us to be able to get them in another way would involve probably a lot more intrusive military actions than the one we’re already engaging in.” (FATA being the Federally Administered Tribal Areas of Pakistan where Al Qaeda and many Taliban are ensconced).

Obama also made another bit of news by addressing a question regarding a young UK man named Richard O’Dwyer who the US is trying to have extradited for copyright infringement. He runs a website called “TV Shack” that offers streaming video of movies and television programs. Obama was asked “Why are you personally supporting the extradition of UK citizen Richard O’Dwyer for solely linking to copyright infringing works using an extradition treaty designed to combat terrorism and bring terrorists to judgement in the USA?” to which he responded that he was “not personally doing anything” because the president does not get directly involved in those type of decisions.

“One of the ways our system works is the president doesn’t get involved in prosecution decisions and extradition decisions and this has been a decision by the justice department,” he said.

“Broadly, we want to make sure intellectual property is protected we want to make sure that the creative works of people in this country aren’t expropriated, but we want to do it in a way that is consistent with internet freedom.”

The Huffington Post has more on this particular story.

Watch the Hangout, via the White House, starting at the 1:02 mark:

Credit: YouTube/WhiteHouse

There is plenty that GOP candidates could use as fodder to attack Barack Obama. An unemployment rate of 9 percent for much of his presidency seems like awfully low-hanging fruit. So why in the world are they bothering to question the president on things that have little basis in reality?

Take Mitt Romney, for example. Speaking at the Republican Jewish Coalition Forum last week, Romney said, ”This president appears more generous to our enemies than he is to our friends. Such is the natural tendency of someone who is unsure of America’s strength — or of America’s rightful place in the world.”

But, in fact, Obama’s foreign policy has taken a such a hard line that he has been likened to his predecessor, George W. Bush, much to the dismay of many progressives in his own party.  He has not closed Guantanamo, after promising he would; he has continued to perform renditions and moving suspects into airspace or locations so the government can perform interrogations he couldn’t attempt elsewhere; he’s used drones in lieu of putting American troops in danger.

So, who exactly are these enemies that Mitt Romney is referring to? Who has President Obama been more generous to than our friends? Obama has exerted American strength to the degree that has made many less-hawkish among us wince.

Recently asked if he’s an appeaser, he responded: “Ask Osama bin Laden and the 22-out-of-30 top al Qaeda leaders who’ve been taken off the field whether I engage in appeasement. Or whoever is left out there, ask them about that.”

The former Republican administration would have relished the opportunity to roll off a line just like that.

In the clearest example of alternate reality, Newt Gingrich refuses to acknowledge that Palestinians even exist, calling them “an invented people.” Perhaps someone should ask Newt if Americans existed as “invented people” prior to 1776. Even Romney, his fellow Republican, suggested that Gingrich should take that comment back. Gingrich declined, shaking his head at the suggestion during the latest GOP debate on Saturday evening.

Republican candidates asserting that Obama has been soft on immigration are willfully ignorant as well. In Obama’s first two years in office, he’s responsible for a record number of roughly 400,000 deportations. The controversy over massive deportations even led to a Frontline special based on a year-long investigation into extended detention and allegations of sexual abuse of immigrants put into temporary prison camps. Yet, Republican candidates don’t think he’s being tough enough on immigrants and want to deport even more. Gingrich supports some measures to try and allow some immigrants to remain, but he’s seen as one of the few moderates in the race when it comes to this issue. The fact that Gingrich is almost to the left of Obama when it comes to immigration shows how far off Republicans are when attacking the president for being soft on immigration. If anything he’s been a bit too aggressive for many Democrats.

Amidst all this, Obama’s weakest point remains. Whether he’s entirely responsible for it or not, he has been unable to fix a terrible economy. He’s even conceded that it may be impossible to fully recover within the next four years. A recent CBS poll shows only 33% of Americans approve of the way the President has handled the economy.

This is what the GOP should be attacking. If the GOP is looking for reasons to convince voters to side with their party next November, they’d be wise to steer clear from immigration and foreign policy and stick to the economy. Otherwise their presidential deficit will likely drag on for four more years.