Debate alert

You may not be watching these presidential debates, but you’re sure hearing about them on all the news shows. I’ve been following them lately more closely, and keep wondering when one of the moderators is going to say, “But you didn’t answer my question.” Anderson Cooper came closest to that on one of the Democratic debates, I think it was the YouTube one.

There’s another one tonight when CNN hosts the Republican YouTube debate.

CNN anchor and debate moderator Anderson Cooper and a team of CNN political journalists have been poring through the nearly 5,000 video questions that were recorded and submitted through YouTube.

It’s only the second time such a debate has taken place. The Democratic candidates faced in July in Charleston, South Carolina, in a similar format. That debate christened YouTube as a venue for prodding politicians and a way to get the public directly involved.

That was July. This is almost showdown time in Iowa.

With five weeks and one day to go until the first votes are cast in the race for the White House, the stakes could hardly be higher…If you’ve noticed, and it’s hard not to, an edgy battle for the GOP presidential nomination has turned even testier the past few days.

One reason for the bad blood is that the Republican race is still very much up for grabs, and the clock’s ticking.

It ought to be interesting.

The format of this debate is all new to the Republican presidential hopefuls, and that’s part of the excitement. The candidates and their campaigns have no idea exactly what to expect.

But they’ll no doubt fall back on their talking points on just about every question. I’ll be interested in who among them is a good listener, who is hearing the question and actually responding to it.

And I’ll be talking with Drew Mariani about some of this, Thursday on Relevant Radio (at 5 pm CST). Join us if you can.