Obama's Pot Answer Too Dismissive

President Obama drew chuckles today for his comments about legalizing marijuana—it's not a "good strategy to grow the economy"—but critics say he was too dismissive of a serious issue. "His answer was a non-answer," writes Andrew Sullivan in his Daily Dish blog at the Atlantic. "I'm tired of having the prohibition issue treated as if it's trivial or a joke. It is neither. It is about freedom and it's deadly serious. As for your online audience, Mr. President, have you forgotten who got you elected?"

At the pro-legalization NORML blog, Paul Armentano agrees. "Obama’s cynical rebuff was short-sighted and disrespectful to a large percentage of his supporters. After all, was it not this very same 'online audience' that donated heavily to Obama’s presidential campaign?" The Christian Science Monitor rounded up Twitter replies along the same vein and also found this: "On the bright side, Obama could have ignored the marijuana questions. He definitely just injected the subject into the political debate." (More President Obama stories.)