On Wednesday (June 11), I joined a panel of eCampaign Directors for major presidential campaigns at a forum called, what else, the first 21st Century Campaign, sponsored by Google and National Journal. Peter Dauo for Senator Clinton, Mark Soohoo for Senator McCain, Joe Rospars for Senator Obama, and me, former Director of eStrategy for Governor Romney’s presidential campaign, rounded out the panel.

We discussed topics such as what it’s like to run Internet strategy for a major presidential campaign, the changing role of traditional media, what factors into a candidate’s success on the Internet, and whether the guerrilla tactics employed during the campaign will carry over to the White House for the candidate who is elected.

Based on a few recent experiences regarding the YouTube community, and specifically how the tool could help increase citizen participation in our upcoming general election debates, this post seeks to encourage the Commission on Presidential Debates -- the Old Guards if you will -- to truly embrace the Internet in at least one of its three scheduled debates.

Let's dig in...

The “YouTube debates” are neither real debates, nor a serious use of the internet's potential. Worse, as blogger Jason Rosenbaum cogently argues, "By heavily moderating the questions, and by deliberately choosing silly, fluffy, or offbeat videos to show the nation, CNN is reinforcing the old media idea that the Internet entertains, but does not offer real, serious discussion or insight." Instead, they want you to turn to the real "experts"...on CNN.

My quick take: This "debate," like last summer's Democratic CNN/YouTube debate, made for lively television. I'm sure it got a big audience, in part because the Republicans hadn't "debated" in a month and in part because of audience curiosity about the YouTube element. The infighting among the Republican candidates certainly made the event even more interesting.But was this a breakthrough for the internet's role in politics?

We're excited to announce the launch of 10Questions.com, a new kind of online presidential forum, one that aims to make the most of what the internet has to offer to politics. On 10Questions.com anyone will be able to directly pose video questions to the candidates for President and choose which ones they most want answered. Candidates will be able answer in detail and without the time limits imposed by traditional televised or on-stage debates. And citizens in turn will be able to give the candidates feedback on whether they actually answer those questions.

Minutes after the Democratic YouTube/CNN debate in Charleston, S.C., I reacted to the debate for TechPresidentTV saying, "I don't think we're ever going to see another debate without a YouTube component in some way. And what I mean by that of course is user-generated content."

This Sunday's Republican debate in Iowa sponsored by ABC News and hosted by former Clinton press flack and fellow Ohioan, George Stephanopoulos, is the first debate, post-YouTube debate.

And, surprising to no one who reads this space closely, there's a user-generated component (UGC).

Dig in after the jump...

GOP front runners seem to be bailing on the September 17 YouTube/CNN debate. Democrats should rejoice at this news. Here's why.

When you think about YouTube, you probably think young and liberal. Well, if you did, you’d be, um, wrong.

As the Republican presidential candidates mull decisions to pull out of the YouTube/CNN debate, we here at techPresident took a quick look at the demographic breakdown of the YouTube audience and found some very interesting data.

According to comScore, YouTube actually attracts more Republicans than Democrats. Specifically, there are 3.3 million self-identified Republicans on the user-generated video site versus 3.1 million Democrats. (An addition 5 million consider themselves independent.)

Digging a bit deeper...

It all started when “Obama Girl” got more attention in the post-CNN/YouTube debate “spin room” than Joe Biden. As I stood outside the spin room, I kept asking breathless spinners who had talked to the brunette charmer, “but what could you possible ask the Obama Girl? What does she have to say about politics”? Oh well. She’s hot. Who cares...but if I have to watch another slutty YouTube political video, I'm going to be sick.

As a political editor for BlogHer.org, I'm going to Charleston, S.C to cover the CNN/YouTube Democratic Presidential Debates next Monday.

As I wrote on BlogHer, is this debate... a shift, or is it a stunt?