Am 30.04. fand pünktlich zum Ende der ersten 100 Tage der Amtszeit des Präsidenten Barack Obama im US Generalkonsulat in München eine Pressekonferenz zum Thema statt. Dabei stellten sich der Generalkonsul Eric Nelson und die Konsulin Cathryn Crockart den Fragen von Schülerzeitungsredakteuren aus dem Münchener Raum.

Da wir die Veranstaltung live ins Internet übertrugen konnten sich darüber hinaus zehn weitere Redakteure und Schulklassen aus ganz Bayern an der Veranstaltung beteiligen. Dabei konnte sowohl die Veranstaltung mit Bild und Ton verfolgt werden, darüber hinaus aber konnten per Textchat auch Fragen gestellt werden, die dann zum großen Teil direkt beantwortet wurden.

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Manche Fragen konnten auf Grund der zeitlichen Vorgaben nicht mehr beantwortet werden - das Konsulat hat die Antworten nachträglich zusammengestellt und uns zur Veröffentlichung zur Verfügung gestellt:

Wie geht Barak Obama mit dem Hype um seine Person um?
The President tries to keep some normalcy in his routine.  He made predictions during the university basketball championships in March, an annual tradition for thousands of Americans.  Just the other day, he and the Vice President stopped to grab a hamburger at a Virgina café.  A little anecdote from the election campaign: Her father is famous, but Malia Obama is like a lot of 10-year-olds: she sometimes finds her dad embarrassing. She recalled a time when a friend came over to their house in Chicago and her father, then the Democratic presidential candidate in campaign mode, shook the girl's hand to say hello. Malia recalled telling him: "You really don't shake kids' hands that much ... You just wave or say hi." So, you can see that his family provides for a reality check.

The former US government called the occurance in Darfur, Sudan, genozide. Does he intend to change that ?
Ending the crisis in Darfur and ensuring Sudan’s long-term stability is a top priority for the Obama Administration. The humanitarian crisis there makes our task very urgent.  President Obama did refer to genocide in Sudan in remarks in March this year. The President has appointed a Special Envoy for Sudan as a strong signal of his commitment to support the people of Sudan. The United States is committed to working with the international community to end the suffering, seek a lasting settlement to the violence, and ensure a stable and secure future for the region.

Was will Obama in der Zukunft noch erreichen? Was für Zukunftspläne hat Obama?
A major domestic priority for the President right now is how to overcome this financial crisis.  But this doesn’t keep Obama from pursuing ambitious foreign policy objectives:  We can expect him to spend more time on plans to keep Afghanistan safe, to achieve a world without nuclear weapons, to rein in emissions and halt climate change….  The list goes on and on.  His plans on all issues are laid out for all to see, step by step, on whitehouse.gov under the “Agenda” tab.

What do you think about the death penalty?
There is an active debate about the use of capital punishment, also known as the death penalty, in the U.S.  It should be understood within the context of American federalism and democracy, where elected governments at the federal and state levels have the power to make decisions regarding the use of the death penalty.  Federal cases can result in capital punishment, but some state judicial systems do not allow it.  The federal judicial system provides an exhaustive system of protections to ensure that the death penalty is not applied in an arbitrary, capricious, or discriminatory manner.  And the system has evolved:  Over the years, the U.S. Supreme Court has prohibited the execution of the mentally insane, barred the use of the death sentence for offenders who were under the age of 18 at the time of the offense, and barred the death penalty for any crime against an individual where the victim’s life was not taken.

What will be done with Guantanamo ?
Many nations have been calling on the U.S. for some time to close down the detention facility in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, and in doing so many of them promised to help the United States achieve this goal.  On his second day in office, President Obama made a commitment to close the detention facility within a year.  How this closure is going to be accomplished and what will happen with the remaining 245 detainees is being decided at the moment, in close cooperation with many allies and partner nations.

Will the new administration recognise and support a Palestinian state?
Obama and Secretary of State Clinton wasted no time in naming George Mitchell, a veteran former U.S. senator and experienced negotiator, as Special Envoy for Middle East peace.  Mitchell has a great deal of diplomatic experience and conflict resolution:  helped win a peace accord in Northern Ireland, and he led a commission that searched for ways to end the violence between Israelis and Palestinians.  The latter commission published a report in 2001 that was dubbed “the Mitchell Report.”  The United States actively supports a two-state solution in the Middle East, with Israel and a new Palestinian state living at peace side by side.

Wieso hält sich Hillary Clinton so zurück? Man hört sehr wenig über ihre Aktivitäten in den Medien.
She is indeed very active. If you don’t believe it, check out her interactive travel map: http://www.state.gov/secretary/trvl/map/?trip_id=5
She has been all over the world, Asia, Europe, both Americas… By Day 99 of the Obama Administration, she has traveled more than 60,00 miles, visited 18 countries, and met with more than 150 foreign leaders.