COVERITLIVE.COM

11:28

Fred Barbash-Moderator - Hello and welcome to POLITICO's Arena Live, your opportunity as a Politico reaader to participate spontaneously in Arena every now and then. I'll ask the same question we've asked today of Arena contributors. What would you like to hear from the President tonight? What would you definitely not like to hear? Just put your name in the little box and send your thoughts. If they're fit for publication--and you know what I mean-I'll publish it right here and now.
I'm also happy to answer your questions about Arena if you've got some. So let's go.

11:41

[Comment From Alan]
How did you decide on who will be an Arena contributor?

11:44

Fred Barbash-Moderator - Thanks Alan. Most of the original contributors in Arena were suggested by staffers at Politico. Then we ask contributors to suggest others, and so on. The idea is to be cross-party and cross-discipline, to bring together very different ideas from a good assortment of smart people.

11:48

[Comment From Paul in D.C.]
Fred. it may be you have smart people. But I can tell you not all the commments are so smart. Do you publish everything that comes in from the people in Arena?

11:50

Fred Barbash-Moderator - Thanks Paul. Here's how it works. We send out a question to all the names you see on the left panel of Arena. Not everyone has something to say every day, of course. But those who are moved to contribute do so, and we publish whatever they send. Well..not really "whatever." Occasionally we might ask someone to rethink. When we do that, it's not because of any particular point of view. Mostly it's just to stay more-or-less on topic. We're proud of the level of discussion in Arena. There's so much on the web these days that's not really fit to print you know.

11:52

Fred Barbash-Moderator - I should add that we're very pleased with the reader contributions to Arena. If you look at them every day, you'll see that they are both civil and articulate. You won't see trash talk here.

12:04

[Comment From Anthony Altieri]
One of my favorite elements of the Arena is when contributors actually respond to other contributor comments, and there's an back/forth exchange, rather than just spouting what they have to say (without challenge). Do you do anything to encourage (or discourage) this type of exchange?

12:06

Fred Barbash-Moderator - Anthony: I definitely want those exchanges and I do encourage them. I'd like to see more direct responses than we have now to make it a real conversation. And I also encourage contributors to challenge one another as well...and sometimes they do.

12:08

[Comment From Richard]
I would like to hear from our President how he is going to solve our economic problems. We were once a country that had an economy that was not affected by what our government did or said. The two have become too intertwined as of late.

12:08

[Comment From Reginald Johnson]
First of all, I would like to hear some positive statements tonight inspite of the circumstances. Obama really needs to understand the power of speaking things into existence. You can do that with both the positive and the negative.

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