Comments on: YouTube… Did citizen video raise the level of debate?

By: J.W.

J.W. — Mon, 20 Aug 2007 19:33:52 +0000

The snowman and the “say something positive and negative about the candidate next to you” were bad questions, the one about slave reparations too.

But many of the others were spot on and highly relevent. One of my favs was about Dem. mandate to bring troops home, which they have failed to do yet. another good one was how religion justifying discrimination is wrong, as it was in the past (in reference to gay marriage).

you’re right about the filtering of the questions…how can that really be democratic? its too bad they picked unpopular questions…but besides some silly apples, it was better than the previous CNN, ABC debates…not as good as the YearlyKos though.

By: p.w.

p.w. — Sat, 18 Aug 2007 17:48:25 +0000

I saw some very good questions that I looked forward to being answered, none showed up.
We even voted on these questions, some that made it were in the negative ratings. Reminds me of the last two Presidential elections, fixed and unashamed.

Waisted hype.

By: Nathan

Nathan — Mon, 06 Aug 2007 02:38:06 +0000

These were the most ridiculous debates in the history of debates. To see gimmicky snowmen and songs in the place of actual truth seeking questions was ridiculous. As if George Bush wasn’t bad enough, the world gets another view of American politics we should all be ashamed of.

By: chase

chase — Sat, 28 Jul 2007 15:43:55 +0000

Think about it this way: they recieved hundreds of thousands of questions to choose from. Surely every concievable question that could possibly be asked was. The person/people who choose the questions to be asked might as well have wrote them themselves. In fact, all youtube did was make their jobs easier.

By: Jimmy

Jimmy — Tue, 24 Jul 2007 21:42:09 +0000

No they did not. The questions were filtered. Where was the questions on terrorism and the strong economy? Filtered out. These are issues that are most important, but issues where Republicans have done very well. The YouTube was all smoke, and the questions were filtered to put the Dems in the best possible position relative to the Republicans. Shame on CNN.

By: Shannon

Shannon — Tue, 24 Jul 2007 17:34:20 +0000

No, if anything, it was set back. Many of the questions were stupid, and basically along the same lines of questions that would have been asked in a traditional debate, anyway. It was not even a debate. The questions were usually aimed at just one or two people. How are you going to get debate when each question is for one candidate only? I’ve heard more heated and informative “debates” on back porches and at coffee houses. If you use this format again, each question should be aimed at all candidates, with all having equal time to answer. Also, the majority of the questions were fairly lame, tame, and humdrum. Let’s get to the answers we haven’t already heard, please.