Tonight’s Debate – Open Thread
Tonight is the CNN/YouTube Debate and I’ll be otherwise occupied.
CNN: Electorate can show true colors in YouTube debate
Democratic presidential candidates face a new kind of grilling Monday when debate questions come from America’s living rooms via YouTube. Analysts say the format could force candidates to be more straightforward but some say the debate isn’t as different as it should be.
* YouTubers ask questions you won’t (VIDEO)
* I-Report: Send your video take on the debate
* Live on CNN TV and CNN.com at 7 p.m. ET
All 3 of these sites will probably be live-blogging the debate:
Chris Cillizza’s The Fix – washingtonpost.com’s Politics Blog
The Caucus – Political Blogging From The New York Times
Debate Prep: What to Look For
No matter the questions, watch how the candidates respond.
3 Responses to “Tonight’s Debate – Open Thread”
Two things can easily make this no better than any other debate:
1. The questions are submitted by normal people, but vetted by CNN. Amongst the thousands of entries CNN can choose the same questions that are standard in any debate, not necessarily unexpected angles.
2. Any politician worth their salt is able to take ANY question and drive it, more or less smoothly, into their talking point. “I would like to ask the candidates how they intend to avoid massive bloodshed and genocide in the wake of a possible US withdrawal”–> “It is essential that we lend all our support to the legitimate government of Iraq in the daunting task of helping the nation recover from president Bush’s failure, but we cannot continue to support a country unwilling to support itself…yadayadayada…keep America safe…yadayadayada…Bush is bad….yahdayadayada Thankyou”
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Lynx is right on. YouTube and the Web are over-hyped gimmicks so far as this debate and other things are concerned. It’s simply another medium from which to get the questions, no different than getting them from e-mail or “snail mail” or by cassette tape. The Web hype is stupid, and the questions are screened and the politicians will blather anyway. Don’t forget that later one-on-one debates will involve legal wrangling and agreements not to ask other than mutually agreed questions.
The best thing that happened as far as debates and changes to them was the “job interview” debate with Cheney and Lieberman, where of course the questions were selected and reviewed beforehand, but at least the format and selection of questions was something different and useful.