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Unvarnished, provocative questions

Scott Shepard

A brave new world of citizen participation

— PHOTO: AP

GROUND-BREAKING FORMAT: Democratic presidential hopefuls, (from left), former Senator John Edwards; Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton and Senator Barack Obama before the start of the debate sponsored by CNN, YouTube and Google in Charleston, South Carolina, on Monday.

CHARLESTON (South Carolina): American politics entered a brave new world of citizen participation on Monday night with a presidential debate in the heart of this historic city of the South.

The debate, featuring all eight candidates for the 2008 Democratic nomination, was the first of its kind in which ordinary Americans posed questions via provocative and refreshing homemade videos posted on YouTube, the pioneering video sharing Internet site.

It’s going to be hard to go back to debates the way they were, CNN’s Anderson Cooper, who moderated the two-hour debate, said before the candidates took a stage at the Citadel, South Carolina’s famed military college.

Indeed, a question about global warming came in the form of a snowman asking if the future would be safe. But several videos from the Internet-savvy voters were hard-hitting and deadly serious, featuring questioners — or their relatives — suffering from diseases such as diabetes, breast cancer and Alzheimers.

The ground-breaking nature of the debate was evident from the very moment that CNN went on the air with the event: it was introduced by Chris from Portland, Oregon, who asked, Wassup?

But he also challenged the candidates to answer the questions instead of beating around the bush. Sometimes they did. Sometimes they didn’t.

But of the scores of videos chosen by CNN producers to be included in the debate, many raised issues rarely discussed in presidential debates, most notably, the payment of reparations to African Americans for slavery, whether the candidates children attended public or private schools, what they had taught their own children about sex, who their favourite teacher was and why and whether women, like men, should be required to register for a military draft.

Occasionally, the candidates, all seasoned politicians, tried to turn the questions to their advantage by rephrasing them or addressing instead what they regarded as the bigger or broader issue.

The candidates also got their turn with videos, each providing a 30-second one for airing during the debate. — New York Times News Service

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