Obama finds jobs plan support

MOUNTAIN VIEW, Calif. – Inviting questions, President Barack Obama got one he was happy to answer.

“Would you please raise my taxes?” one man asked the president at a town hall Monday, hosted by the social networking company LinkedIn.

The questioner described himself as unemployed by choice after succeeding at a search-engine startup company that did “quite well” – he was later identified as former Google executive Doug Edwards – and said he wants the nation to spend more on education, infrastructure and job training. That gave Obama a chance to promote his nearly $450 billion jobs plan that would be paid for by higher taxes opposed by Republicans but not, evidently, by some of Silicon Valley’s wealthiest.

“I appreciate the fact that you recognize that we’re in this thing together,” Obama said. “Those of us who have been successful, we’ve always got to remember that.”