In Health Reform, Obama Returns to Grass Roots, Tech

In an effort to jump-start health care reform, Barack Obama is returning to the social networking tools that got him elected, the Washington Post reports. Likely Health and Human Services Secretary Tom Daschle is starring in YouTube videos and taking massive conference calls with supporters interested in the subject. “Listening may be even more important than talking,” one watcher said, “because it diffuses opposition.”

Obama’s transition website has encouraged conversation on the subject, which the president-elect says will be a focus of his first term. The dialogue online is collaborative, and staffers are aggregating comments to show what citizens are most interested in. And the transition team is taking a keen interest. “Already we’ve begun to follow through with some of the ideas,” Daschle says on YouTube. (More social networking stories.)