Ask Valerie Jarrett, Netroots Nation

by Netroots Nation on Wednesday, August 5, 2009 at 8:48am ·

If you had a chance to ask one of the president's most trusted advisors anything, what would you ask?

Next week, you'll have that chance. Here at Netroots Nation, we aim to provide you with unique opportunities to interact with our country's leaders and ask them tough questions they won't hear from the traditional media.

On Saturday, August 15, at 9 a.m., join us in Pittsburgh for A Conversation with Valerie Jarrett.

This is your chance to engage in substantive conversation with one of the President's most trusted advisors in a keynote session moderated by blogger, commentator and comic Baratunde Thurston.

In the latest New York Times Sunday Magazine, President Barack Obama said of Jarrett, “She’s family—she combines the closeness of a family member with the savvy and objectivity of a professional businesswoman and public-policy expert."

According to the President, Jarrett is trusted “to speak for me, particularly when we’re dealing with delicate issues.” At the same time, he could rely on her “to monitor the dynamics inside the White House." In other words, the questions we pose next week will fall upon the ears of our country's highest leader.

The Obama administration has taken great steps toward providing people like you and me greater access to our government. Jarrett has been a driving force behind those efforts, creating space for innovation and open government. We're thrilled to be taking another step down that road by hosting this conversation.

So ask your question in the comments section of this note and share it with others so they can do the same. Anyone can ask a question whether they are going to Netroots Nation or not. But if you haven't registered yet, seriously what are you waiting for? Register now.

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  • Michael Crawford, Adam Mordecai, Natasha Chart and 10 others like this.
    • Martha Elizabeth Ture Is the President going to call all the Blue Dogs into his office, give each a piece of paper with the amount of federal stimulus money in his/her district, and say "I want your vote on health care. If you are a Democrat, get in line. Otherwise, next time you want any more federal $ in your district you can ask Jim DeMint for it."
      August 5, 2009 at 9:00am
    • Oli Landwijt I like Martha's question. Works for me.
      August 5, 2009 at 9:08am
    • Ben America Amen
      August 5, 2009 at 9:10am
    • Brent Turner Is there any way to get Microsoft lobbyists off the backs of Congress ? We want election system reforms - but they threaten to cut purse strings if Congress makes the voting systems transparent with open source software. What can be done to counter the " microsoft effect " ?
      August 5, 2009 at 9:13am
    • Andy Wilson During the campaign, President Obama had very specific policy solutions that he ran on regarding health care, climate, etc-- but now that he is President he has moved away from talking about only supporting a health care bill that included a public option, 100% auction of carbon credits etc. These are the policies we elected him to enact- why is he not advocating for them in Congress now?
      August 5, 2009 at 9:32am
    • Adam Bonin Does the White House object to progressive groups pressuring Blue Dog and moderate Democrats in their districts on health care and other issues?
      August 5, 2009 at 9:34am
    • Edrie Irvine In 2004, Senator Obama said "Genocide is underway in Darfur, Sudan. ...We cannot, in good conscience, stand by and let this genocide continue." And yet we did. What specifically does President Obama intend to do to avert the ongoing use by the Sudanese government of starvation as an instrument of war against the people of Darfur?
      August 5, 2009 at 9:34am
    • Edrie Irvine
      President Obama has spoken passionately about his intention to act boldly to end the crisis in Darfur and promote international efforts toward a peaceful future in Sudan. To date, the only concrete action appears to be the appointment of M...ajor General J. Scott Gration as Special Envoy to Sudan. What specific bold steps has President Obama taken, or does he intend to take, to end the long-running genocide and war by displacement and starvation in Darfur?See More
      August 5, 2009 at 9:41am
    • Michael Dare If we don't want Iran to have nuclear power, why did we sell them a nuclear power plant in the first place?
      August 5, 2009 at 9:54am
    • Michael Dare Why doesn't congress just mandate that all insurance companies, drug manufacturers, and health care providers be non-profit?
      August 5, 2009 at 9:56am
    • Curtis Abbey What's the cost/benefit analysis of trying to control dangerous industries (speculative finance, health insurance cos, soft drink companies/agribusiness, too big to fail banks and the military industrial complex)? How do we regulate these huge pieces of our economy during a bad recession?
      August 5, 2009 at 10:36am
    • Ben Smilowitz FEMA is arguably the most interdisciplinary agency, with coordinating roles in 29 government agencies+nonprofit organizations. Given interagency problems with post-disaster housing, mass care, recovery, and others, why is FEMA not in the Cabinet where the President can be the final arbiter for inter-agency disputes?
      August 5, 2009 at 10:55am
    • Gerald Alan Miller
      Since it seems that the extreme centrist mainstream of the Democratic Party is intent on making nice with the HMO racket and placing a watered-down public "option" alongside their plans, my question is what safeguards, if any, are in place ...to prevent them from making this "cooperative" plan worse than what we have now and sabotaging health reform just as Bush sabotaged Medicare? In particular, what will prevent the HMO's from expanding their cherry-picking substantially, thereby increasing their profits and passing along the overhead cost of picking up the additional rejected clients onto the public "option," AKA our taxes? I refuse to allow ill-conceived "compromise" and "bipartisanship" to produce another corporate "bailout" the likes of the FSLIC and the banking, insurance, securities, and derivatives rackets.See More
      August 5, 2009 at 12:14pm
    • Steve Stearns When Obama was running for office he expressed that he would be a "fierce advocate" for gay rights. Since then he's done little to forward gay rights. When can we expect Obama to begin to make real progress on this issue?
      August 5, 2009 at 12:33pm
    • Eric Lykins
      Speak about what we've learned from failures of such systems as TennCare leading into similar ideas that have worked such as the Minnesota State Group Insurance Plan (Pawlenty approved socialism!), how we can learn from best practices and b...uild a cohesive, sustainable structure. Tell Congress to keep it simple and flexible enough to evolve into versions 2.0 and beyond. Warren Buffett says that if a layman can't interpret the balance sheet, don't buy the stock. With that you knock the message out of the park and get to work.See More
      August 5, 2009 at 12:34pm
    • Natasha Chart Will you encourage the Secretaries of State and Agriculture to more seriously consider the findings of the IAASTD report, indicating that female and small holder farmers around the world would be better helped by further research and training in agroecological methods, inexpensive techniques that can help right now, than by the genetic engineering research they have been so keen to force development funds into?
      August 5, 2009 at 12:36pm
    • Donald Hitchcock
      Can you explain President Obama's FY10 budget regarding sexual health for young people? Does the narrow framing of adolescent reproductive and sexual health as "Prevention of Teen Pregancy", move us in the right direction to address equal...ly important issues of HIV, STDs, sexual orientation and gender identity among adolescents? How can we make sure that we don't throw the most vulnerable populations under the bus? Additionally,why is the White House going to continue to fund ineffective abstinence-only programs under the $25M pot for promising, but not proven, programs?See More
      August 5, 2009 at 12:42pm
    • Adam Mordecai
      The Republican senate and house leadership have had said many things that indicate that they have no interest in bipartisanship, good faith or creating a good healthcare bill. They clearly want to stop any progress that is made on reform w...hatsoever. <insert 50 quotes indicating such here, including Grassley's twitters>. Given that they have shown such animosity towards actually governing, why attempt to placate them at all? We can get a good bill working with Democrats alone, and we can paint them as the obstructionists they are. They did that rather effectively when we weren't in charge, and got a lot done. At what point does the President say, "I get it, you have no interest in really participating, go yo your room, you are grounded." and treat them like the children they continue to behave like?See More
      August 5, 2009 at 2:58pm
    • Connie Hoveland
      I have a few questions/comments for Ms. Jarrett
      1) The amount of lobbyist/money is very influential - Is the Administration considering trying to limit the amount of influence lobbyist have?
      2) With public backlash regarding government run... healthcare what more do you think we can do to educate the people and MSM on the advantages to government run services?
      3) Why hasn't Congress considered Medicare for all and an expansion of that program set up like current MC/SS as we get back to work making good income most do not notice a few pennies from their paycheck.
      4) What is the Administration doing to change the Senates mind regarding taxing health benefits? That would be $4,000 tax for me without a pay increase. Why do I have to pay taxes but not the rich (repeal Bush tax cuts).
      5) Most important sometimes politicians need to make decisions on what is BEST for main street is Congress/President willing to take the risk to make sure we have access, funding and affordability to healthcare?      See More
      August 7, 2009 at 5:03am
    • Michael Crawford
      The president campaigned on the issue of a transparent government, but the administration seems to believe transparency merely means putting more information online. Of equal concern to the transparency community is why is the administrati...on adopting so many of the Bush administration policies on issues like public access to torture photos, public access to the interview Vice President Cheney gave the FBI as part of the now closed investigation into the leak of Valerie Plame Wilson’s covert identity, and its continued over reliance on the state secrets privilege?See More
      August 7, 2009 at 8:02am
    • Michael Rogers In 1996, Barack Obama supported marriage equality for all Americans. Since then, he has claimed, that he opposes same sex marriage. Can you share with us any other civil rights issue where President Obama has gone from the more progressive view to the more centrist view and if he has not, what about this one issue moved him to abandon his prior belief?
      August 7, 2009 at 4:15pm
    • Jamiah Aniece Adams
      Ms. Jarrett and President Obama lived abroad from an early age and I believe that it contributed to a broader world view-- do you (Ms. Jarrett) envision a program in the future that would provide educational experiences abroad for youth f...rom poorer rural and urban areas of the country? (I know we are tackling more pressing problems right now and a fiscal crisis but I know that education is a priority of the President's and I hope that perhaps money can be set aside to encourage cultural understanding and linguistic study abroad for under privileged youth under 18.)See More
      August 10, 2009 at 7:10pm
    • Holly Jaramillo
      ‎1. Why won't President Obama put a moratorium on prosecuting cases under Don't Ask Don't Tell while the military has this policy under reconsideration?
      2. Why is President Obama defending the Defense of Marriage Act? Didn't he say he wa...nted to eliminate it?
      3. Does President Obama believe that bipartisanship is still possible given the comment by Republican Pete Sessions that "the days of civil town halls are over" and the displays of open hostility from the GOP?
      4. What is necessary in order to get the media to take a more critical look at the misinformation generated by the town hall disrupters, the insurance industry and the GOP and call it what it is?
      5. Why has President Obama signed at least 6 signing statements. President Bush signed 1,200 of these during his 8 years in the White House and was rightly criticized by then-Senator Obama for this egregious abuse of power. Why is it not an abuse of power when President Obama does this?      See More
      August 10, 2009 at 8:45pm
    • Nora Fox Handler
      I am the sister of three men with intellectual disabilities and one who also has a serious mental illness. The disability community is worried that the Obama administration is backing away from both the Community Choice Act and the Class Ac...t. State budgets are devastating services for people with disabilities and mental illness. Can these people and their families still count on the administration and does the President still support these important acts.See More
      August 12, 2009 at 5:50am