YouTube: https://youtube.com/watch?v=Br9EAmr2oNQ
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View count:643,639
Likes:16,142
Comments:3,140
Duration:03:37
Uploaded:2013-02-12
Last sync:2024-02-21 15:45

Citation

Citation formatting is not guaranteed to be accurate.
MLA Full: "Talking to the President." YouTube, uploaded by vlogbrothers, 12 February 2013, www.youtube.com/watch?v=Br9EAmr2oNQ.
MLA Inline: (vlogbrothers, 2013)
APA Full: vlogbrothers. (2013, February 12). Talking to the President [Video]. YouTube. https://youtube.com/watch?v=Br9EAmr2oNQ
APA Inline: (vlogbrothers, 2013)
Chicago Full: vlogbrothers, "Talking to the President.", February 12, 2013, YouTube, 03:37,
https://youtube.com/watch?v=Br9EAmr2oNQ.
Submit your questions for President Obama: http://www.youtube.com/whitehouse
RSVP for the Hangout with President Obama (...and me): https://plus.google.com/events/ck7p5i47e2pfqlq4bkk6lo8sml8
HankGames: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ooDMPCmvhi8&list=UUEozHN2uoprBmM2LSDDS7ew

In which John discusses his forthcoming google+ discussion with Barack Obama, who is the President of the United States of America. John also discusses how social interactions like this are inherently uncomfortable and also talk about his anxiety, which at the moment of the filming of this video was focused on a cold sore.
[large crows yells:] GOOD MORNING HANK; IT'S TUESDAY!!!!!!! [John] I was going to make a Thoughts from Places video from Dublin, but then I realized that you took all of my footage and used it in your Dublin video, so I'm left with just this clip of a woman smelling her pit in shame like she is an opponent of the Swindon Town Swoodilypoopers. Who, by the way, Hank, have THREE games left in their entire FIFA 11 history and are on the cusp of winning the Barclays Premier League; link in the dooblydoo! So Hank, I was pretty upset with you for borrowing all of my footage from Dublin, but then something much more important happened; I began to develop a cold sore! Mmmm... you can't really see it, but you know how you know you're going to get one before you get one; yeah, I know I'm going to get one. So, Hank, why is that such a big deal? Well, on Thursday, I am going to be in a Google+ Hangout with the President of the United States, Barack Obama, and I am probably going to have a cold sore. My only hope of not having a cold sore is this stuff, Abreva, which is the only FDA-approved medication for cold sores and literally costs more than gold! Wait, did you just say I was going to be in a Google+ Hangout with the President of the United States of America?! [Emits strange, angelic-like noise] is the sound that my anxiety makes. Hank, I have no idea why this happened, but someone at Google called me a couple of days ago, and was like, "Do you want to hang out with the President?", and I was like, "Eh, it depends, the President of what? Because I just hung out with the President of DFTBA Records, Hank Green, for like a week and a half, and it was all right, but... you know, I wouldn't do it again." And they were like, "Yeah, the President of the United States, Barack Obama; do you want to be in a Google Hangout and ask him a few questions?", and I was like, "Hmmm, [twirls mouth], OK." So Hank, I am going to get to ask the President some questions, I'm going to improvise a bit, but I have prepared a few. My first question is, "H-Hi, Mr. President, my name's John Green, OH MY GOD WHAT IS AIR?!" Then I also have, "Would you rather fight 10 duck-sized horses or 1 horse-sized duck?", and, of course, "Mr. President, I can't help but notice that Canada got rid of its one-cent coin and nothing bad happened; HOW DO WE STILL LIVE IN A WORLD WITH PENNIES?!" And then, of course, I have to ask him, "Who the eff is Hank". By the way, Hank, you can also ask questions to the President, as can anyone; there is a link in the dooblydoo to submit your questions; there is also a link in the dooblydoo to RSVP to the Hangout, or whatever-I-don't-understand-this-terminology. But basically, it'll be live on YouTube at 4:50 PM Eastern Time on Thursday; I will be the one will the cold sore. Anyway, Hank, I'm intellectually aware of the fact that the President of the United States doesn't care if I have a cold sore, and also that he will forget who I am within like 4 seconds of the end of the Google Hangout, so that he can go back to like country-running. I am nonetheless extreme anxious about the cold sore, and also every other facet of this interaction. And I saw a similar phenomenon, albeit on a much different scale, when we were on tour, because many people, when we met them, were very like nervous and self-conscious. Hank, we met more than 6,000 Nerdfighters in 10 days, and I can say with authority that none of them had anything to be embarrassed about, but I know that many of them still felt embarrassed anyway; I also felt embarrassed. And that's kind of the inherent problem with meeting people you admire or whose work you really like; it will never be normal, because you're always going to be hyper-conscious of everything that could go wrong. And if, say, you're President of the United States, you have those interactions with people EVERY SINGLE DAY, Hank. Like most of your interactions, even with your staff, are with people who are like, "Oh my God, that's the President, everyone be calm." THAT is the number one reason I would never want to be President; number two reason is that no matter how sensible your policy ideas, people only want to talk about ideology. And the number three reason is that I get cold sores every winter, and if you're President, then YOU CAN'T HIDE. Hank, when the Yeti and I first started dating, she told me that when she was in eighth grade, she realized that everyone else was thinking about themselves as much as she was thinking about herself, and that therefore no one else had any time to think about her. This epiphany was one of the central reasons why Sarah was a relatively well-adjusted teenager; she realized that when she was like thirteen; I realized it when I was... I'm actually still trying to internalize it. Hopefully it'll happen before Thursday afternoon, but regardless, Hank, I'll see you on Friday.