Obama and Facebook in Warm Embrace

"I'm very proud of that," President Obama quipped as he walked onto a stage at Facebook headquarters on Wednesday, and sat next to Mr. Zuckerberg. Both men then proceeded to take off their jackets. About an hour later, Mr. Obama, whose visit here forced Silicon Valley types to button down a bit, left with a far more casual item of clothing that has become de rigueur in some tech circles: a hoodie given to him by Mr. Zuckerberg. Of course, the Facebook logo was printed on it.

In the interim, Mr. Obama conducted a town-hall-style meeting at Facebook, and on Facebook, in front of a largely friendly audience. He took questions from company employees in a cavernous room turned into auditorium and from Facebook users over the social networking service, with Mr. Zuckerberg acting as moderator.

Mr. Obama delivered sharp attacks against Paul Ryan, the Republican congressman from Wisconsin who drafted a budget proposal heavy on spending cuts and tax cuts, and talked about the economy, health care, education and immigration reform.

Throughout the largely staged event, Mr. Obama and Mr. Zuckerberg appeared almost chummy with each other.

At one point, Mr. Zuckerberg praised Mr. Obama for his work on education. "I think Race to the Top stuff that you guys have done is one of the most under-appreciated and most important things that your administration has done," Mr. Zuckerberg said.

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