CNN host Anderson Cooper opened last night’s YouTube Democratic presidential debate by stating that 3,000 video questions were submitted.
http://politicalticker.blogs.cnn.com/
Those aren’t exactly “American Idol” level numbers of interest. Given the fact that nearly 40 questions which actually made it to the Charleston screen, one had a far better chance of having one’s question addressed than of winning the lottery, or “…Idol”.
As to the subject of winners and losers, we’ll be as evasive as the smooth candidates by stating, this format does not eliminate the ability to avoid providing direct answers. The hopefuls still presented accomplishments and platform planks rather than responses, and ignored second parts of two-part queries (i.e., how many relatives have you serving in Iraq or Afghanistan?).
http://www.cnn.com/2007/POLITICS/07/23/debate.main/index.html
We are still a long way off from the cold February days when campaign dollars and YouTube gaffes will determine who will take Florida, California, and the symbolically important Iowa caucuses and New Hampshire primaries. In last night’s “man on the street” atmosphere, with Carlson vainly trying to keep the candidates on subject, Senators Joe Biden and Chris Dodd looked comfortable and sounded experienced, Rep. Kucinich forthright as usual, Senator Barack Obama neither lost nor gained, Governor Bill Richardson, while he hit no questions out of the park, and lacked a warmth, made important distinctions that he is not a current member of the House or Senate as concerns the voting on troop removal from Iraq. The questions were well chosen, if not always easy for the t.v. audience to hear or understand. In a country where the 2004 national political conventions didn’t air until 10 p.m. at night after network sitcom reruns, not many citizens are engaged at this point.
BCB
