Daily Digest: 6/14/07

Joshua Levy — Thu, 14 Jun 2007 11:20:26 -0400

The Web on the Candidates

As we've previously mentioned, CNN and YouTube are co-sponsoring an upcoming Democratic presidential debate on July 23 in Charleston, SC. In a new video announcement, CNN's Anderson Cooper and YouTube's Steve Grove describe the format. YouTube users will submit videos to the site, and some of those will be used as questions for the debate, which will be hosted by Cooper. Another video shows examples of the kind of entries the co-sponsors are looking for: creative videos with red-meat questions about predatory lending in low-income neighborhoods, veteran's benefits, and healthcare.

While it will be interesting to see YouTube move concretely into the political sphere, is this really going to change the tone of the debates in which, as the New York Times' Katherine Seelye describes it, "a guy in a suit asks mostly predictable questions of other suits. The voter is a fixture in the audience, motionless until he or she gets to address the candidate, briefly and respectfully. Everything is choreographed"? She thinks it might, since "the video format opens the door for originality and spontaneity — elements usually foreign to the controlled environment of presidential image-making." All of the Democratic candidates have signed up for the debate, which is the first "official" Democratic debate in that it is being coordinated by the DNC. In the Times piece, Matt Lewis of Townhall recommends that risk-averse Republicans get involved too. "Technology will happen, and the question is whether it will happen for you or to you," he said, paraphrasing Tom Friedman from this year's PdF conference.

techPresident - Daily Digest: 6/14/07 - Comments

Daily Digest: 6/14/07