Did the snappy new format work?
In the presidential debate, that is. We talked about that on Morning Air today, a lively discussion with Sean and Wendy that’s still available on their site (in audio archives). A few points: Abortion was absent from the ‘debate’, though it wasn’t really a debate…. Candidates waffled on some of the hot issues, like when Sen. Edwards talked about having a deep faith but then insisting it would not influence his thoughts and actions as the nation’s leader (what?)…. Anderson Cooper was good at listening to a candidate dodge a question for a moment and then saying ‘Okay, since it’s obvious you’re not going to answer that, we’ll move on to…’, which I was so glad to hear. I’m usually saying that to the TV anyway, but this time the moderator was on top of them.
Here are a couple of links to this morning’s follow up on the CNN/YouTube debate. The Chicago Trib’s column that covers Washington politics, called “The Swamp”, says this:
Will we look back in months on the CNN/YouTube Democratic debate from South Carolina and see it as a turning point in the race?
Doubtful.
It breaks down the exchange between the candidates and draws some conclusions. See how they match yours….if you watched.
If you didn’t here’s a good rundown:
It’s quite clear that then Internet and now online video have changed political marketing. Whether they have changed the nature of political discourse is another thing entirely. Indeed, people will be discussing whether last night’s YouTube-CNN Democratic presidential debate was a watershed moment for American politics or simply a novel mechanism to deliver questions “from the audience.”
Even if it does not linger as a format, at least one thing has changed as a result of this cyber forum:
It’s also the case that this debate and the related videos and commentary will have a long afterlife that political debates have not had historically. Archiving of these questions and responses will allow millions of people who didn’t tune in to watch CNN to see the video. We’ve entered the era of “debates on demand.”
And then, I’m starting to see articles turn up that are beginning to talk about “debate fatigue.” I think we’ve been there for a while already.
