President Obama Holds Economic Town Hall Meeting
WASHINGTON (WJZ)—President Barack Obama goes face-to-face with the American people. It's a town hall special you can only see on WJZ-TV.
Jessica Kartalija has more on the unique opportunities some Marylanders got Wednesday.
Attendees said it was a very intimate setting. The president arrived promptly at 2 p.m., walked right in and got down to business.
Two hundred people from Maryland, Washington, D.C. and Virginia had an intimate conversation with the president.
"Felt like he really took an interest in what I was saying," said Karin Gallo. "And I thought he was engaging. And I was so glad I came, and I'm so glad I had this opportunity."
"It's a really tough job," Seth Turner said. "He is the face of the United States government. Unfortunately, a lot of people blame the problems on him and they don't necessarily blame the other 535 people that happen to work under that dome a couple blocks away from us."
Fielding audience questions and questions via e-mail, Twitter and Facebook, the president candidly spoke about his political agenda regarding the economy.
"Our topic is the economy," said Erica Hill, CBS News. "And that's the most important issue for most Americans, I would say. And what's interesting, it's an umbrella topic--gas prices, job security, entitlements. These are all things people want answers on. And so they had the opportunity to ask those questions to the president today."
Between questions, the president posed for pictures and joked with anchors and the audience.
"He seemed very calm and collected, like he had done it before," said Kristin Orton. "I think he's very open to folks and what we had to say. I've never been that close to the president, so I was really excited to see him living and breathing. So I thought he did a really wonderful job."
People who WJZ spoke with following the town hall meeting told WJZ they felt like it was a conversation in the living room of their house.
Harry Smith's Interview With WJZ:
You can watch the town hall Thursday at 8 a.m. on WJZ-TV.
