YouTube Debate Raises Stakes (Sorry collection of repugs will face video questions tonight)

[jefferson_dem]

YouTube Debate Raises Stakes
Republicans to Joust
As Polls Show Voters
Are Still Searching
By AMY SCHATZ
November 28, 2007; Page A8

ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. -- Despite reservations, Republican presidential candidates will answer questions tonight from the public submitted via YouTube in a two-hour debate to air on CNN.

The candidates are preparing for questions like those asked in the Democratic CNN/YouTube debate in July, when they fielded a query from an animated snowman on global warming and a gay couple's question on same-sex marriage.

With six weeks to go until the Iowa caucuses, the stakes in this debate are higher. The eight men haven't debated in a month. Polls suggest former Massachusetts governor Mitt Romney leads in Iowa and New Hampshire, while former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani holds a commanding lead here in Florida; Sen. John McCain (R., Ariz.) is chipping away at Romney's lead in New Hampshire, and former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee is surging in Iowa.

Polls also suggest many Republican voters are open to switching allegiances, particularly to someone deemed better suited to challenge Democratic front-runner Hillary Clinton next November.

Some of the campaigns expressed concern about the debate format, worried that Democratic activists would stack the deck with questions. CNN producers say they have no intention of choosing "gotcha" questions and plan to put forward questions on issues important to Republican voters, such as national security and health care.

YouTube, a unit of Google Inc., says almost 5,000 video questions have been submitted, more than twice the number for the Democratic debate. CNN is likely to choose about 40.



http://online.wsj.com/public/article/SB119621477700306096-4vj1gTnceN9i7kTRjHaCDbK2_X8_20071228.html?mod=tff_main_tff_top

Link to some of the questions that were submitted --- http://www.youtube.com/contest/RepublicanDebate

[bluestateguy]

1. CNN has tremendous power here

It's nice that people get to ask the questions, but Anderson Cooper still gets to decide which questions are actually presented at the debate, and which questions disappear into the internet archives.