By ALINA SELYUKH
Hailed as the first virtual town hall meeting from the White House, President Obama's Q&A this morning wasn't quite as unprecedented as some commentators have claimed. George W. Bush and Bill Clinton both held interactive conversations with ordinary citizens over the Internet while in office, although neither did so in a live format.
On the presidential campaign trail last year, John McCain and Hillary Rodham Clinton also attempted to reach larger audiences through new technologies. McCain spoke over the phone in a conference call with supporters, which the Washington Post at the time hailed as "a novel, virtual town hall meeting." And Clinton answered pre-screened questions for an hour during a meeting that was live-streamed to her campaign Web site. In addition, MoveOn.org organized a virtual Q&A with all seven Democratic candidates during the primaries, giving the group's members a chance to ask questions.
But the politician best-known for opening the floor to (pre-screened) questions is current Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin. "A Conversation with Vladimir Putin," a TV and radio broadcast featuring Putin fielding queries from Russian citizens, has been held annually since 2002, even this past December after his second term as president ended. For more than three hours, Putin answered around 80 questions submitted via text messages, phone calls, Web submissions and political public consultation offices. They varied from economic issues to the Georgian crisis to the need for Christmas trees and his birthday presents.
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