Cnn YouTube Debate
I watched the CNN YouTube Democratic presidential debate last night with great enthusiasm for a different political discourse. Mostly, I was disappointed. The whole “user generated” content was sort of gimmicky. Wolf Blitzer repeatedly spoke of the interactive nature of this debate, which I didn’t really get since most of the questioners were not present or able to actually “interact” with the candidates. And while Anderson attempted to keep the responses on target, there still was a great deal pandering and vacuous answers. My main issue with this and all other primary debates is the pointless focus on what they call the “tier 1” candidates. In this case, Hilary, Obama and Edwards received much of the attention, not only in the directness of the questioning but also on the subsequent “news” coverage. I don’t understand why we limit the party to so few choices. Why not listen equally to each of the candidates and let the issues come to forefront?
I was quite impressed with the candid responses from Dennis Kucinich as well as the pithy replies from Mike Gravel. But the follow up reporting spoke little of their contributions, instead focusing almost exclusively on the performance of Hilary and Obama. Both of who delivered familiar rhetoric about “uniting” democrats and republicans and yadda yadda. That is too bad. Instead of using technology to empower and involve a younger, disengaged, electorate, this political theater staged by CNN may only assimilate those young voters into a stagnate political system that continually fails and frustrates Americans like me.
Watch for yourself (http://www.youtube.com/debates)
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