Obama Fields Most Colorful Town Hall to Date in Vietnam
Crowds asked him questions ranging from pot use to where he'll be in five years.
— -- President Obama arrived to enthusiastic crowds at his final event in Vietnam today, a town hall with young leaders in Ho Chi Minh City, where the president fielded some of the most colorful questions he has ever taken.
Eager crowds asked the president questions ranging from his marijuana use in his youth to where he sees himself in five years.
His focus was on connecting with young people, explaining their generation will change the world.
"Your generation can look at the world with fresh eyes without some of the old notions, the old habits of a previous generation," Obama said in the town hall with the Young Southeast Asian Leaders Initiative.
The president later fielded one question about his long-ago marijuana use. A young Vietnamese man asked how the president transitioned from a youth of irresponsibility to becoming president of the United States.
"You never know exactly why something inside you clicks and you decide to take a different path," Obama said, explaining he struggled a long time with his relationship with his father. "I grew up."
The president even dropped a beat for a young musician who rapped for him.
Obama received a typical job interview question: "Where will you be in five years?"
"I'll be doing all my organizing work and involved in the public policy issues, but I won't be doing it through a formal way," Obama said. "I'll be a community organizer, except a little more famous that I used to be.”
Without mentioning any candidate by name, the president briefly weighed in on the state of U.S. politics.
"One of the great things about the United States is even when it makes mistakes, it's able to adjust and recognize our mistakes and then we correct course and take different steps," he said.
He reassured the audience that "things are going to be OK. I promise."
Earlier in the day, the president met with seven Foreign Service nationals who served at the U.S. Embassy in Saigon during the 1975 evacuation.
The town hall in the city formerly known as Saigon capped off Obama's historic three-day visit to Vietnam. The president is traveling to Japan where he will attend the G7 Summit. On Friday, he will make an historic stop at Hiroshima, becoming the first sitting U.S. president to visit the site where the United States dropped an atomic bomb during World War II.