The Web on the Candidates

• Mitt Romney -- he who lives in fear of talking snowmen -- was on CSPAN2 last week, attempting to explain his hesitation to participate in a YouTube-sponsored Republican debate. David All transcribed part of the conversation at TechRepublican: "I hope that uh... we find a way of either using questions that happen to show a degree of respect, whether they come from YouTube or other sources, but the kind of cartoon, uh questions and so forth are probably not uh, not ideal, for a presidential debate." Sigh. All, Patrick Ruffini, and others have launched SaveTheDebate.com, a site asking Romney and Rudy Giuliani (who has also signaled that he has "scheduling conflicts") to "reconsider any decision to snub the critical January 29th primary state of Florida and 51 million unique YouTube users." (the site was featured this morning on Dennis Miller radio.)
• Meanwhile, Think Progress reports that CNN has "called [the Republicans'] bluff" and postponed the debate. Jose Antonio Vargas, writing in the The Trail, the Washington Post's campaign diary (it's not a blog, it's a diary!) writes that, according to CNN, that Romney may join after all if the debate can be pushed back.
• Responding to "prevailing wisdom in the political press corps" that the YouTube debate format is nothing more than a "stunt," this weekend Vargas published five myths about YouTube and politics, which come from supporters and detractors alike. The first? "Journalists ask better questions than citizens do." I like it. #2: "It doesn't matter who asks the questions; what matters is that the question is asked." Even better. #3... read the rest. I'm requiring it.
• One question at last week's debate actually inspired a clash between Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton about "issues" (what are those again?). Stephen Sixta -- one of the two questioners who asked followups at the debate, and who looks like Laura Palmer's psychiatrist from "Twin Peaks -- asked whether or not the candidates would talk to the leaders of Iran, Syria, Venezuela, Cuba, and North Korea during their first year as President. Obama said yes, Clinton said no, sort of. Sixta said he liked Obama's answer the best. Al Giordano of the anti-drug war site Narco News asked him about John Edwards' response. "With no disrespect to Senator Edwards who I think would make an excellent President, I have honestly no clue what specifically he said... I was in something of a stunned stupor that had me asking myself, 'Just what the heck, am I doing here?'"

The Candidates on the Web

• Jose Vargas also notes that Rudy Giuliani continues to be "AWOL in Cyberspace," sporting a private MySpace page, no Facebook profile, and not even a profile on Eons, the social network for the baby-boomer set. Matt Lewis of Townhall told Vargas he has two theories. "First of all, he's the frontrunner. If you look at the campaigns that really do innovative, revolutionary things online, they are usually the underdog campaigns -- Ron Paul. When you're a frontrunner like Rudy, you don't want to take risks and make mistakes. Secondly, I've been to events where Rudy has spoken. He's very guarded. He's not the most accessible of candidates, and that's the online campaign that he's run so far."
• Barack Obama's campaign recently asked David Brody of the Christian Broadcasting Network to submit questions for Obama to personally answer, and yesterday Brody posted the responses. Obama's responses are somewhat predictable to those who follow the candidates, but this was an impressive, if minor, attempt to use the web to cross ideological lines.

In Case You Missed It...

Zephyr Teachout attended this year's BlogHer conference and noticed the conspicuous absence of most of the candidates and their representatives.

Patrick Ruffini has established himself as the most articulate voice calling for the Republicans' participation in the YouTube debates. Here's why they matter.

Democrats should rejoice in the news that the Republicans are shunning the YouTube debate. Zack Exley explains why.

Michael Bassik posts news that there are actually more Republicans than Democrats on YouTube. Surprised?