Tuesday, July 24, 2007

Dem’s CNN/YouTube debate fresh and interesting 24jul07



It was such a smart move for CNN to partner with YouTube to sponsor this debate. It puts the old cable news organization on the high road to being up to date with the now generation. Last night’s debate with the 8 Democratic presidential candidates was unusual to say the least with the questions being submitted to YouTube and then played for the candidates. It was just so refreshing to have questions asked in unusual ways. Some were songs, some were jokes and many were filled with heart-felt honesty. It was the first time I ever saw a common person ask a presidential candidate a question and then the moderator turn right around and ask the guy if his question was answered! And he eventually said, no! This new format encouraged the candidates to be honest.

Anderson Cooper did such a bang up job as moderator. My respect for him just grows with time. Openness and honesty is what we crave in our leaders and this new team hit a home run in that department.

And what’s Fox News doing? I tell you, they’re not partnering with any cutting-edge technology to bring more relevance and clarity to issues. That would go against their prime directive. No, they had political correspondent Carl Cameron telling us all the inside poop about the hate-filled, raging rivalry between Hillary and Obama. And the implication was, as it always is with Fox/Limbaugh that Hillary and Obama are lying, vengeful charlatans and are not to be trusted.

But, they are free to say what they wish. And it’s up to us to ferret out the truth. I’ll bet you the Republican presidential candidates will have a big problem with the YouTube format used last night when CNN does this with them in September. Can you imagine Bush subjecting himself to such a questioning format?

I honestly think any of these candidates would make a better president than the current administration. I like all of them. Hillary has a substance and experience that Obama doesn’t have but, my favorite candidate is Obama. I think he is a born leader and would bring a huge wave of hope and prosperity to our country.

They were genial, articulate and a few times quite funny. I roared with laughter when Anderson said they couldn’t find anyone to the left of Kucinich. I also liked the honest comments by Clinton and Biden about the logistics of getting our troops out of Iraq. They have been saying for many months now that it just can’t be done overnght. It has to be done in an orderly fashion to protect our troops and minimize civilian casualties.