Obama Answers Tough Questions

He cherry picked.

[O]went on to answer seven questions from average Twitter users, none with more than 400 followers, one with only seven, on issues ranging from energy to student-loan interest rates to mortgage reform. Obama answered each one personally, as evidenced by a picture of Obama tweeting away on a laptop tweeted by White House photographer Pete Souza. The answers he provided mainly echoed talking points he has already expressed on his "To Do" list, the five tasks he's asked Congress to accomplish to improve the economy.

But the tweets he answered were all time-stamped much earlier than his initial personal tweet inviting questions, one as early as five hours before Obama's tweet. Was the Twittersphere suddenly clairvoyant, predicting Obama's seemingly impromptu Q&A before its denizens knew it would happen?

Nope. Those tweeters were responding to an earlier call for questions from the official White House Twitter account, around noon on Thursday, that largely went under the radar until Obama shifted the question session into high gear with his personal tweet. The questions were, then, not spontaneous, but rather likely cherry-picked by staff hours before, giving Obama ample time to prepare answers.