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A Blog-Inspired Dose Of Democratic Debate

[Cross-posted at AirCongress]

It is no secret by now that I was unimpressed with the Democratic presidential debate that CNN and YouTube hosted this summer. I have no greater expectations for the similar one planned with Republican candidates next month.

But as of today, there is a new, Internet-inspired presidential debate in the works that I think holds out much more promise -- in no small part because it is the brainchild of people who are directing traffic at the crossroads of politics and technology.

We mentioned the effort in a brief at Technology Daily just moments ago:

The blog techPresident is inviting people to submit video questions for an upcoming online presidential debate next month that will feature both the Democratic and Republican contenders.

The blog's readers will have a chance to vote on the top 10 questions, which then will be put to the candidates on Nov. 14. The candidates will have about a month to post their responses, and online readers will vote on whether the candidates really answered the questions posed to them.

The co-creators of 10Questions.com, Andrew Rasiej, Micah Sifry and David Colarusso, said having the wisdom of the crowd select the questions and give feedback on the answers finally uses the Internet as a communications hub and a two-way conversation. In a statement, they said they are optimistic that 10Questions.com will be "the first truly people-powered online presidential forum in history."

Adding e-politics heft to the idea, the forum has been endorsed by top bloggers across the political spectrum, including: Crooks & Liars, Daily Kos, Firedoglake, Hot Air, The Huffington Post, Hugh Hewitt, Instapundit, Michelle Malkin, MyDD, Open Left, Pajamas Media, PrezVid, Raw Story, Patrick Ruffini, RedState, Right Wing News, techRepublican, Townhall and The Truth Laid Bear.

The New York Times editorial board and MSNBC.com also are affiliated with 10Questions.com.

The format is superior to the CNN/YouTube debates in at least three ways:
-- Internet users will pick the questions and get the chance to vote on the answers.

-- The questions will be submitted to candidates in both parties, so attempts to game the debate with gotcha questions aimed at one party or the other will be more difficult.

-- Questioners will not be limited to submitting their questions through one service. There is more to the video-sharing world than YouTube, and this way, the debate will be more about promoting the best questions than the host companies.

The one potential pitfall I see is that people can be a bit ornery on the Internet. Unless a veto of some sort is built into the system for selecting questions, we could see another question asked by a snowman, or online supporters of Ron Paul could crash the 10Questions gate by forcing Paul-friendly questions to the top.

Then again, maybe that's the point of 10Questions. If online voters, rather than CNN or YouTube, want to hear a snowman ask a question or think Ron Paul is the man, maybe that's just the dose of democracy the presidential debates need.

Posted by Danny | 04:27 PM

Comments

Would it really be so bad if some of the other candidates had to address issues which are important to us Ron Paul supporters? For example, do they agree that the Patriot Act is a threat to our civil liberties and should be repealed? Is the drug war a failure which has negative unintended consequences? When was the last time you saw a question like that in a debate?

Derrick | 10.17.07 09:41 PM

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