Obama's keynote speech at SXSW (Austin)

[Lodestar]

President Barack Obama is kicking off the first day of the South by Southwest festival in Austin, TX, with a talk focusing on the role that technology should play in civic life. The president is making his first appearance at the festival, and will use the occasion to call for using technology to improve customer service inside the government, according to the New York Times. As the Times notes, Obama has made a point of embracing the tech community, regularly attending fund-raisers in Silicon Valley and inviting tech leaders to the White House.

[Missn-Hitch]

1. I love this guy. My President!

The 22nd amendment is really a mercy rule for republicans. - Bill Maher

[Lodestar]

2. I wish he/we would create MORE opportunities for these types

of drawn out discussions speaking adult to adult with citizens
and as he suggests, getting a two-way communication going with
government so that people and government truly work together on issues.
Not like FDR's fireside chats exactly ( there wasn't a means for citizen imput),
but a venue similar to a city council meeting but on the national/federal level
where he or any president can get past sound bites into the meat of issues facing us
and get immediate feedback, organize citizen working groups, brain storm, etc.
We really have under-utilized all our technology and its potential to open up
dialogue and really draw on the wealth of resources in our citizenry.

[Surya Gayatri]

3. What an admirable man. Intelligent, thoughtful and profoundly human. Boy, did we do the right

thing in electing him.

We will not see his like again for a long while.