WHITE HOUSE NOTEBOOK: Obama's European town hall


STRASBOURG, France (AP) — Who knew Europe had so many Americans?

President Barack Obama found out when he held a town-hall meeting for German and French citizens Friday.

Inside the cavernous Rhenus Sports Arena on the French-German border, Americans kept raising their hands.

The first person called on, a young lady, was American. The irony of the moment led Obama to declare: "Now, I just want to say I did not call on the American on purpose."

He issued a plea after answering her question.

"All right, now. I know there's some other Americans in the crowd. But do me a favor, Americans. Wait till we get back home and I'll do a town hall there, because I want to hear from my French and German and European friends," he said.
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His fifth and final questioner made it clear at the outset that she was not American.

"I'm totally European," the young woman from Heidelberg, Germany, said.

She taught him a new Hungarian word, too.

"First of all, I wanted to tell you that your name in Hungarian means 'peach,'" she said.

In fact, 'Barack' is the Hungarian word for the fuzzy fleshed fruit.

"Ok, well, how about that. I did not know that," a seemingly surprised Obama said.

"Yes, now you know it," she replied, then asked whether he ever regretted running for president.

Obama might not have known it, but his supporters in the U.S. certainly did. During the campaign, they used the language play to gather supporters for peach festivals in Colorado, Michigan and Massachusetts.

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(Peach Brandy)

how pompass

he is paid by the americans and he tells them not to ask a question

that is just wrong

they may be there under contract and not on the way back to the states anytime soon

he is the united states president

not president of the world YET!!!!!!!!!!!

Sounds good to me. When I see how he is with his wife and daughters it fits. Always thought he was sweet as well as intelligent...

Its just a matter of time

I would have assumed his time there was limited and wanted to answer the questions of the people of that country first, doesn't seem unreasonable to me.

Well, he just said that, because there was 2 Americans after one another were trying to ask questions and Obama said "I'm more interested of what of the Europeans have to say".

I mean, he is in Strasbourg,France for a reason, or are you trying to imply that he should only be asked by and answered to Americans?

and he represents the americans not those that live there

to put it more bluntly

he works for the americans

what would happen if you told yer boss to shut up and let the other company guy talk

that is why i said YET!!!

So you're saying he should not talk to anyone but Americans?

Its gonna be great

did i say that----- NO I DID NOT

he literally told Americans not to ask they have more right to ask than anyone else

he should not have told them to shut up (basically)

he is calling on whomever he calls on the American should be able to be called on as well as anyone else there

and so did he, the first 2 were indeed Americans (one US citizen and one double citizen USA/France) , i watched the meetings.
It's when he made the statement that he wants to hear from someone who isn't from USA.
Are you calling this unfair?

Nevermind the fact, that the whole thread (which i started) wasn't about this anyway.

makes this a part of the thread

thus these posts are covering the opening post