Obama gets grilled online

Has democracy gone too far? Can you imagine George Washington, John Adams or even Thomas Jefferson permitting the effrontery of just any Tom, Dick or Harry demanding that their pet peeve get put before the American people for a vote? Can you imagine George Bush allowing it? Me neither.

Well, that's just what President Obama has done with the White House Open for Questions service that let's you or me or anyone submit a question so that everyone else can vote on it. Obama says in a video that he'll be back online this Thursday to address some of the popular questions submitted. Not surprisingly, there are many technology-oriented questions.

"I'll be giving you some answers myself," the president says.

As of Tuesday night there were more than 6,000 questions submitted, which had drawn more than 200,000 votes. Even if you do not want to register to vote or submit questions, it is an interesting and evolving experiment in a citizen's democracy. In fact, Obama refers to the service as an "experiment," much like the Founding Fathers referred to the Republic when it was on its wobbly legs.

He says he's taking advantage of the Internet to "get a sense of your concerns."

Based on Google Moderator, the service could significantly change the tilt of power in Washington. If voters feel that the White House is more responsive to their concerns than their own representatives, Obama may be able to put more pressure on Congress to bend his way on issues because he'll have hard data about zip-code specific views on this or that political hot potato.

Oh, and just for the record, I think it would be difficult to take democracy too far.