Four Snouts Up for You Tube--CNN Presidential Debate

(:)(:)(:)(:)for the You Tube--CNN Democratic Presidential debate last night broadcast on CNN. I found this a very refreshing and sometimes disarming debate to watch. Anderson Cooper did a surprisingly good job of moving through the new format where the Democratic presidential candidates responded to crudely produced You Tube video questions (displayed on individual computer screens in front of each candidate along with a small subscreen for the television audience--presumably the quality was too low to blow them up to full screen size).

What made the debate disarming was the candor of the questions. I'd judge that at least 50 percent of them were questions I simply would not want to field as a front runner--and only a few were out and out softballs. For example, a question directed to Hillary: how do you justify the possibility of two families (Bush and Clinton) dominating the white house for 28 consecutive years? Another: would you work for the minimum wage if that's what the presidency paid?

Some were cute but policy-oriented, a snowman asks "how will you address global warming so that my son can live out a normal life?" Others quite odd, two "good old boys" commenting on the speculation about Al Gore getting into the race. Wondering, "does that hurt y'all's feelings?"

This was actually the first debate I've watched this year. I thought that Edwards comported himself extremely well, with bold decisive answers on health care, nuclear energy and other issues. He seemed to genuinely enjoy the format and the questions and took it all with good humor. Frontrunners Obama and Clinton had a lot more to lose.

All this talk about Obama being a progressive seemed ludicrous to me after watching this debate. Obama seemed visibly uncomfortable to me. As far as I'm concerned he waffled on everything from health care to nuclear power to putting his kids in private school.

Hillary put decades of waffling experience to use, waffling much better than Obama and coming off like the pro she is. She didn't make me want her to be President, just more fearful that we might have to contend with her as the nominee.

Of the lesser candidates, Chris Dodd, Bill Richardson and Joe Biden were all pretty impressive. Dodd especially good on the environment. Richardson was passionate on covering undocumented workers for health care, clearly campaigning for the latino vote. Biden was excellent on the war and wierd but effective on gun control. Kucinich was sweet with his comb-over and ernest face.