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CNN/YouTube Debate Live Blog!

| Mon Jul. 23, 2007 3:55 PM PDT

We'll be here all night, folks, watching the Dems debate at the Citadel. Big question, according to the mainstream media anyway: will someone try to distinguish themselves by attacking Hillary Clinton, who leads in all the polls?

Today's questions don't come from moderators — they come from YouTube users who submitted 3,000 questions in the weeks leading up to the debates. CNN showed polls before the debate showing that the younger you are, the more likely you are to use the internet to follow campaign news. But the older you are, the more likely you are to watch a debate on television. What that means is, today is as an inter-generational affair, with old fogies tuning in only to be befuddled by all the youngsters with webcams appearing on their TV screens.

Okay, kicking things off. The first two questions are all crazy and in-your-face. I'm willing to bet CNN could have found enough serious and almost boring questions to make this a conventional affair. But they've been billing this as revolutionary for days, so things are going to have to be edgy. This might be a loooong night.

Continues Below

Continued From Above

The candidates are taking these questions — no matter what they are — as opportunities to list their talking points. That means that so far, this has been like every debate ever.

All questioners are young, as expected — but several have directly accused candidates of dodging questions, which is unexpected. Having ordinary folks ask questions, instead of cynical reporters who have preconceived ideas of which topics are relevant and which aren't, is refreshing, I'll admit. But I wish candidates didn't have to fit their thoughts into 30 second bites.

Awesome comment below, by the way...

More live blog: Part 2, Part 3, and Part 4.

Comments

Submitted by ladyactivist (not verified) on Mon Jul. 30, 2007 2:13 AM PDT.

It's great that so many young people got online for these debates. Another cool thing that's happening is the What's Your Plan? campaign?where young people are hitting the campaign trail to talk face to face with all of the Presidential candidates about issues that are important to them. Young people are asking one simple question: What's Your Plan? To stop global warming. To make a college education affordable. To provide effective, affordable health care. To address financial security for Americans. Already they've had 35 face to face conversations with the candidates in California, Illinois, Iowa, Nevada, New Hampshire, and South Carolina?including: Mitt Romney, Rudy Giuliani, Barack Obama, John Edwards, Duncan Hunter, John Cox, Bill Richardson, Chris Dodd, John McCain, Tommy Thompson, Ron Paul, Dennis Kucinich, Hillary Clinton, Sam Brownback, Mike Huckabee and Joe Biden. For more information go to www.whats-your-plan.org. What's Your Plan? is a project of the Student PIRGs' New Voters Project and affiliated youth organizations.

Submitted by ladyactivist (not verified) on Mon Jul. 30, 2007 2:13 AM PDT.

Submitted by Bill Grabarec (not verified) on Mon Jul. 23, 2007 4:17 PM PDT.

Now if we can get some of these younger people to actually vote....

Submitted by Twenty-Sixth Amendment (not verified) on Mon Jul. 23, 2007 4:37 PM PDT.

I'd vote if you could do it online.
And if you got, like, a free pizza or something.

Submitted by Bill Grabarec (not verified) on Mon Jul. 23, 2007 8:00 PM PDT.

Just remember: if you don't vote, you have no right to bitch about the results of the election

Submitted by ladyactivist (not verified) on Mon Jul. 30, 2007 2:13 AM PDT.

It's great that so many young people got online for these debates. Another cool thing that's happening is the What's Your Plan? campaignwhere young people are hitting the campaign trail to talk face to face with all of the Presidential candidates about issues that are important to them. Young people are asking one simple question: What's Your Plan? To stop global warming. To make a college education affordable. To provide effective, affordable health care. To address financial security for Americans. Already they've had 35 face to face conversations with the candidates in California, Illinois, Iowa, Nevada, New Hampshire, and South Carolinaincluding: Mitt Romney, Rudy Giuliani, Barack Obama, John Edwards, Duncan Hunter, John Cox, Bill Richardson, Chris Dodd, John McCain, Tommy Thompson, Ron Paul, Dennis Kucinich, Hillary Clinton, Sam Brownback, Mike Huckabee and Joe Biden. For more information go to www.whats-your-plan.org. What's Your Plan? is a project of the Student PIRGs' New Voters Project and affiliated youth organizations.