No other president has ever given his fellow citizens this much access and potential power. And the more improvements we can encourage his staff to make in this new petition site, the more likely that it will become so popular that future presidents will feel compelled to grant us the same privilege.
As of today (April 16, 2012), there were 23 petitions waiting for responses and 15 of them had been submitted over 6 months ago.* Such lengthy delays will inevitably discourage a lot of people from participating, especially those who tend to focus primarily on current events!
*Go to the "Popular" open petitions page, and see for yourself. Note that many qualified with fewer than 25,000 signatures because only 5,000 were required until it was raised to its present level on October 3, 2011.