The Nation, the Washington Times, and the Personal Democracy Forum are behind a new effort to solicit questions for Barack Obama from the general public: communitycounts.com/obama

Anyone can submit questions and then vote for their favorites. The "best" questions might then be asked of him at a White House press conference. If you want Obama to be really pressed on very tough questions - the type the MSM refuses to ask - this is not going to give you what you want. However, if you want Obama to only be presented with puffball questions including those he's already answered, then you should cheer this latest effort. So, it's either a sham or a blessing depending on your position on the role of the press; if your reference point is Pravda, start cheering now.

See the popular voting systems summary for past examples of other shams - including those perpetrated by those behind the current effort - and for a description of a better way to do things.

And, believe it or not, it gets even worse. Over to Ari Melber of The Nation introducing the plan in "The People's Press Conference" (thenation.com/doc/20090406/melber):

After public voting, the coalition will select and send a credentialed journalist to attend the next presidential press conference, ready to choose from the list of the most popular citizen questions. (This journalist would focus only on these questions from citizens and would not reduce the time available for the standing pool of White House reporters.) The precise question will not be announced in advance, though the choices will obviously be public. At the press conference, the journalist can choose from the top questions, prioritizing a topic that is substantive, factual and that has not already been addressed by the president... This assumes, of course, that President Obama agrees to participate...

So, after all the voting, the question that's asked will be filtered by the journalist (would that be you, Ari?) And, all of that is pending Obama's approval.

The way around all of these issues is to choose the questions as described at the summary link above, and then have someone go to Obama's public appearances and ask him the toughest questions whether he approves or not. That's the only way to make sure that he's asked actual tough questions.

UPDATE: The Nation (web version) published a letter to the editor I wrote them about this. Enjoy my left-friendly, more formal voice: thenation.com/bletters