President Obama's virtual town hall gave organizers, including office on new media director Macon Phillips, "an ulcer" because the highest-ranked question was on legalizing marijuana.

This week I was fortunate enough to ask Macon Phillips, the director of the office of new media at the White House, how he is able to hurdle government bureaucracy and create some of the Web’s most innovative uses of social media for President Obama. We all know that the Obama campaign and now administration has set the standard for political engagement on social networks. I’m sure books will be written about just that.

Phillips talked unassumingly about how the White House is using new technology to reach larger audiences, get their feedback, and sort the feedback into manageable bites that then reach the ears of the most powerful man on earth. Phillips also talked about one of the toughest moments for his office, when President Obama responded to questions submitted and voted on by online communities for an Online Town Hall. The conference made headlines when the top-rated question had to do with legalization of marijuana. The President made light of the question asking what that said about online communities. Phillips said the experience gave him a very rough few days in the White House, not to mention an ulcer.

I was glad Macon Phillips took my question (and follow-up) and even happier with his great answer. "Never start a sentence with Twitter" when proposing a new social media strategy to your boss, he said.

What I most wanted to hear, though, was how Phillips sells these cutting-edge ideas internally. Social media is all about trial and error. And when you fail in social media, you do so very publicly (case in point: The question about weed).

Philips said the key was not to frame the conversation in terms of the tools. “Never start the sentence with ‘Twitter,’” he said. He said he convinces the President’s office of the importance of engaging in social media by emphasizing the potential impact. “Wouldn’t it be cool to get thousands of people to watch the President talk about health care and then give him a way to answer their questions in real time?” Is more effective than confusing social media skeptics with lots of technical jargon about the tools that will be used.

He couldn’t have given better advise to the audience. Phillips was speaking to 125 non-profit professionals who work in Washington, DC at the Oct. 22 White House Networking Reception. While non-profits are often touted as the industry most on the edge of social networking, we are far from immune from the knee-jerk responses to innovation. Especially in a year that has cut back so many non-profit budgets, it can be hard to justify spending valuable staff resources on tweets. Social media can feel intangible, abstract and unimportant.

But it’s not.

More and more, we’re seeing that the organizations that embrace social media, are the ones that survive–and flourish. Phillips is at the cutting edge, and we would all do well to follow his example.

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We made it home after my phone battery died so I had to stop blogging from my phone. The Internet was so spotty, it was for the best. I must say it was a great decision to go down to the Mall for this experience. Everyone was electrified. Every video we took has someone cheering (or booing – but that was just when the jumbo-tron scrolled to Bush)

Obama’s speech had everyone silent. We didn’t move, speak, we barely cheered. I just waved my flag, completely speechless that he’s president. It’s an amazing feeling and still hasn’t died down.

I’m so grateful to be an American today.

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Carter gets cheers, Bush an awkward silence and a few flag waves, Clinton gets yet more cheers.

Laura Bush and Lynn Cheney get loud boos. Then the speakers go out and we don’t hear Michelle Obama being announced with Jill Biden … we all go crazy anyway.

They announce Bush and everyone goes crazy with boos. So much so that some people start laughing nervously. Others call friends and are disappointed to hear the boos did make it on the TV coverage. Oh well.

Obama gets the loudest cheers of all (of course!) It’s a great moment.

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So much for checkpoints!! There wasn’t a single one. So much also for restrictions on what you can bring onto the mall…there are people here with full-out picnic gear – chairs, blankets, backpacks, cards, food everything!

Too bad we followed all the rules. I’d love a hot cup of coffee!

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Flickr photos: http://tinyurl.com/9wf8qe

MTV Coverage and photos: http://tinyurl.com/95jwat

WAPO Live blog: http://tinyurl.com/8xcxpr

YouTube potpouri: http://tinyurl.com/7kbass

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[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b1pLFnPgD3g]
This came a close second to Bono’s performance with U2. Even watching it on my computer gives me chills – especially when everyone comes up on the stage to sing together. Incredible.

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We started out biking down close then swarms of people surrounded us, we regretted it, and took forever to backtrack. But we ended up with a sweet spot just below the Washington monument with about 10 screens in view and amazing shots of the crowds.

The highlights:

3:29 –

Obama sings along to “Bye Bye Miss American Pie”

Everyone cheers when “Bye Bye Bush” is thrown in

3:52 –

Oh yeah, Stevie Wonder is rocking it with Shakira and Usher

3:57 –

Samuel L. Jackson speaks. Another reference to Lincoln. Can’t hear too much back here with the common folk. Ahh the price to be paid for breathing room.

4:00 – 

BONOOOOOOOO. My life is complete. “One Love” the crowd goes wild (and I do too). I video “this is the dream of the United States…..this is Israel’s dream, and this is Palestine’s dream too” Everyone goes nuts

4:10 –

Obama speaks for 7 minutes – beautiful and short. We go crazy.

“YES WE CAN”

4:25

Beyonce closes and gets a standing ovation from the seated folk. The front row includes Obama and family, Bono, Tom Hanks and more. When will you ever see that lineup in one place again?

The experience of a lifetime.

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In celebration of the last week of Bush’s 8 painful years as president, I encourage all to read the beautiful writing of our next president in a letter to his daughters:

‘What I Want for You — and Every Child in America’

Barack and Michelle Obama with daughters Sasha, 7, and Malia, 10.

Next Tuesday, Barack Obama will be sworn in as our 44th President. On this historic occasion, Parade asked the President-elect, who is also a devoted family man, to get personal and tell us what he wants for his children. Here, he shares his letter to them.

Dear Malia and Sasha,

I know that you’ve both had a lot of fun these last two years on the campaign trail, going to picnics and parades and state fairs, eating all sorts of junk food your mother and I probably shouldn’t have let you have. But I also know that it hasn’t always been easy for you and Mom, and that as excited as you both are about that new puppy, it doesn’t make up for all the time we’ve been apart. I know how much I’ve missed these past two years, and today I want to tell you a little more about why I decided to take our family on this journey.

Read the full text in Parade

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