[JesseK]

Some people (like me) crack jokes to show humility in that which they don't understand. For an instant in the public spotlight, those students were much much smarter than he was. I took Obama's Radio Shack joke as a way for him to beat the critics to that point.

If we flood the white house with written letters requesting some sort of presence at an event, I'm sure he or his administration would make an effort. Keep in mind that if we want more exposure to the public we should pursue the presidential avenue. Yet if we want more exposure to the policy makers then we should pursue attendance of the Education Department and Congress. I honestly have no problem with pursuing both, but it will take the majority of teams to put forth the effort (no just those purusing CA....).

Perhaps one of the most critical things we could convince him to do is to watch a Regional's webcast, or appear at the D.C. Regional briefly and/or unannounced to the public (it's less than 5 minutes from the W.H. to the regional ....). Then perhaps he would realize that the message of FIRST is one of the only STEM initiatives in the entire country that is fully aligned with his educational goals. From there he can decide for himself that FIRST is the best due to the close collaboration of industry engineers with the students. That is the first step, and is key in my opinion.