Yesterday, President Obama held the first ever White House Twitter Town Hall meeting. The president fielded questions from Twitter users (asked in the site's standard 140 characters or less). But the president's answers were anything but concise. In fact, he responded to participants' questions with the same long-winded, professorial rhetoric he's been criticized for throughout his presidency. Obama's ability to address his base and stimulate audiences was perhaps his greatest strength as a candidate in 2008. This begs the question: Why has President Obama failed to properly get his messages across to the American people since then?

Takeaway Washington correspondent Todd Zwillich and Michael Waldman, former chief speechwriter for President Bill Clinton, executive director of the Brennan Center for Justice, and author of "My Fellow Americans: The Most Important Speeches of America's Presidents from George Washington to Barack Obama," join us with their opinions.