Getting campaigning candidates to directly answer questions isn’t an easy task for reporters… or citizen journalists either. The CNN/YouTube-sponsored debate of Democratic contenders on Monday featured videos questions submitted by viewers. (CNN transcript and Reuters video highlights)

The questions sparked a clash beween Hillary Clinton and rival Barack Obama, but do you think the video questions drew more revealing answers than the usual debate format? Comment below.

The New York Time felt “the experiment by CNN and YouTube looked less like a breakthrough in the democratic process than a high-tech town hall.” But blogger Andrew Sullivan liked it, saying the candidates “dodged anyway. But it was more obvious. That’s a step forward. More, please. ”

The CNN/YouTube debate was “fairly good” for Josh Marshall at left-leaning talkingpointsmemo.com blog. “I agree with a lot of viewers who have said that having actual voters posing the questions made it harder for the candidates to duck the questions. Perhaps a third or maybe a quarter, though, were just silly.”

Captain’s Quarters didn’t find the questions riverting either. “Let’s hope that CNN can pick better questions in the next YouTube debate in September, with the Republicans — and that YouTubers give them better material.”

Presidential candidates raised more through the end of June than all of 2003, the year before the last presidential election, according to the Campaign Finance Institute.
     During the first six months of 2007 candidates raised more ($277 million) for the primaries than all candidates raised through the whole year of 2003 ($272 million).
    The money is also flying out of the bank at a fast clip.
    Faced with an accelerated primary schedule in which the de facto nominee from each party could be known as early as the first week of February, the candidates are also spending money at a record pace.
    During the first six months of 2007, Republican candidate Mitt Romney spent $32.3 million, which was more than then-Democratic hopeful Howard Dean spent in all of 2003 ($31.7 million) and almost as much as George W. Bush in all of 2003 ($33.6 million).
 

Former North Carolina Sen. John Edwards, running behind Sens. Hillary Clinton of New York and Barack Obama of Illinois in the Democratic race, says he has sworn off $400 haircuts.
   Critics have used Edwards’ expensive haircuts to try to raise questions about his commitment to fighting poverty, a central theme of his presidential campaign.
   The subject came up in a “town hall meeting” broadcast the other day on ABC’S “Good Morning America,” when a woman asked Edwards how he justified spending $400 on a haircut.
    “I don’t. No excuses,” Edwards replied. “But can I just tell you, you know, some lessons you learn the hard way. I’ve learned my lesson. I got a very cheap haircut a few days ago, and I’m going to keep getting cheap haircuts.”
    The Edwards campaign refused to elaborate on Edwards’ comment, with a spokesman saying Edwards wanted to stay focused on his poverty campaign.

Republican presidential candidate Rudy Giuliani is putting some distance between himself and President George W. Bush on the U.S. strategy in the war on terrorism.
    In an interview with USA Today published on Friday, the former New York City mayor said the United States should do more to capture Osama bin Laden and dismantle al Qaeda operations in Afghanistan and northern Pakistan, even at the expense of U.S. ally Pervez Musharraf, Pakistan’s president.
    Giuliani said the United States has been distracted “for a while” by military setbacks and other issues associated with the Iraq war, and not focusing enough on al Qaeda’s resurgence in Afghanistan and Pakistan.
    “This cannot be like a horror movie,” Giuliani said. “You know, in the horror movie you kill the monster, and the hand re-emerges. And if you’re not looking, the hand grows back and then the monster’s there again. That cannot be allowed to happen.”
    Giuliani, who made a name for himself with his strong response to the Sept. 11 attacks in New York, made his comments after a new National Intelligence Estimate concluded that al Qaeda had gained strength and become entrenched in remote northwestern Pakistan.
    Some of his remarks sounded much like Democrats who argue that the Iraqi war has drained resources away from the fight against al Qaeda, which was responsible for the Sept. 11 attacks.