BlogHer - Obama Interview Could Have Been Better - Comments

With His Majority

Candace in OKC — Tue, 20 May 2008 22:18:15 -0500

With his majority tonight, I hope you will get another opportunity to interview him!

The one thing I admire most about Barack Obama is his ability to answer tough questions as well as answer the same questions over and over with out rolling his eyes and thinking to himself "Oh no, not again!" as I would. I could never run for office!

I think in the next few weeks people will begin to learn much more about the Senator, and you can rest assured, I will continue to pose questions to his campaign. But, what I know of the man, what I have researched so far, impresses me.

Thanks for the background. I am happy to be a part of this intelligent, creative community.

Truth is Truth Is Truth

www.candacericherson.com

Ask what you will..

nelle2nelle — Tue, 20 May 2008 20:55:54 -0500

but you will also find by the time someone reaches this stage of a political career, they are quite adept at taking your question and reshaping it into what they wish to say - and you can bet they have talking points ready to go.

IMO, the biggest plus of this interview is not what morsels we can find in his answers, it is in establishing BlogHer's credibility and viability in the information marketplace - and what that means in relation to and for the market served.

Growing pains are good.

nelle

The work continued online...

Elisa Camahort — Tue, 20 May 2008 19:36:55 -0500

Thanks Gena.

I just also wanted to add that post-conference, the draft questions were posted online and discussed online, so that people who didn't attend could participate.

In addition, they were purposely non-partisan, and they were purposely policy-oriented. So, no, the focus wasn't on creating questions like most of the ones you ask above.

I hope we get another shot at interviewing Obama before this is all over and I, particularly, would love to know his answer to your last question, Candace!

Elisa Camahort
BlogHer
elisa@blogher.org

Welcome Candice - A Wee Background on the Questions Asked

Gena Haskett — Tue, 20 May 2008 17:49:11 -0500

the questions that Erin asked were generated months ago by a group of women that attended the BlogHer Political Manifesto session in July 2007

The session will open with strategist presentations, one from the left
end of the spectrum, one from the right, reflecting their latest
thinking on what women voters want in '08. Next, attendees will break
into multipartisan groups to take four critical issues raised by the
survey, (such as health, the environment, global strife and the
economic future of our extended families.

We did invite all of the candidates at the time to talk with us. The only one to respond at the time was Elizabeth Edwards representing her husband John Edwards.

We have a hell of a lot more questions but these were selected as the top ones to ask the candidates. The offer is still open to Hillary and John should they want to take us up on the offer.

Please keep checking in with us, we got a lot of different things happening around here.

Gena - Out On The Stoop

Obama Interview Could Have Been Better

Candace in OKC — Tue, 20 May 2008 17:07:46 -0500

The best thing about the interview with BlogHer and Senator Obama today, was that it informed me, not about anything new in terms of his political agenda but, it acquainted me with the website. I am glad to find this site, however, I was less than intrigued with the questions submitted for the interview. Not one question was asked of him that hasn't been asked a thousand times in a thousand interviews. To have had 10 minutes of the Senator's precious time was an honor and in my opinion, his time was wasted. It was too predictable. Sorry. I wish I had found you sooner.

I know as women, we have intelligent, creative minds and there must have been intelligent, creative questions submitted. What was the process for selecting the questions? Yes, I can hear you saying right now, "You are so smart, what would you have asked?" I would have asked him: "What were some of the most important experiences you can share with us that led you to become such a critical thinker?" "What motivated you to become more than just an average student?" "Do you learn from your mistakes? What is the biggest mistake you ever made and what did you learn from it?" "Will you remember the promises you have made on the campaign trail?" "How will you keep those promises if Congress doesn't back you?"