News: After 2 hours, the debate is over. You can see all of the 39 video questions asked of the candidates here.
Analysis: I just did a BBC radio interview about the debate. I’ll try to get a link. CNN-YouTube get an A for the concept of user-generated questions. But I give them a C+ for execution. Hopefully, things will improve for the Republican debate.
The 1-minute and 30-second format for answers was far too restrictive, allowing very little interchange among the candidates, and most of the debate just looked and sounded like a conventional debate. And the parts that were unconventional were often gimmicky. YouTube’s Steve Grove, aka CitizenTube, probably could’ve done a better job than Anderson Cooper in moderating.
I don’t want to sound too negative because several of the questions from YouTubers were quite effective, particularly the ones that were just a little more personal. The questions were different and, I believe, better than standard questions from journalists. The questions were, for example, the minimum wage question from two young women, the gay marriage question from two lesbian women, the question from the pastor to John Edwards about the use of religion on the issue of gay marriage, the question from the parent who lost his son in Iraq, and the questions about health care from several people dealing with cancer, diabetes, Alzheimer’s.
[I'll try to follow up with a fuller write-up.]
