Entries Tagged as 'Youtube Debate'
29 November 2007 · Comments Off
Part of the backstory in the aftermath of Wednesday night’s GOP YouTube debate has been the potential for ulterior motives among the questioners. For example, you’ve probably heard about the gay retired General who failed to disclose his ties to the Clinton campaign (you can read about it at Politico if you haven’t). Michelle Malkin has also not been shy in pointing out other questioners having previously expressed support for Edwards or Obama.
While I can agree with the idea that it’s bad form for a Clinton staffer to get to pose a question without disclosing his ties (regardless of whether it’s his question or a “plant” from Hillary)…I’m not overly excited about Dem-supporters having their submitted questions aired at a GOP debate.
Yes, I suppose that it is a little disingenuous for folks to pose as Republicans or undecided voters if they hold interests (or appear to hold interests) to the contrary.
However, a fair amount of the (admittedly limited) outrage I’ve seen expressed seems to be of a “how dare they invade our debate”…and that’s something I don’t buy. These folks are ultimately running to be President of the United States…not President of “Us but not Them”.
They’re running in an election that is at least in part being funded by taxpayers’ dollars, regardless of any partisan affiliation of those taxpayers. True, in many states, you have to be a partisan to participate in the taxpayer funded primaries…but that’s a practice I disagree with and therefore don’t accept as justification.
Tags:
2008 Elections · Debates · Michelle Malkin · Youtube Debate
28 November 2007 · 1 Comment
Others will need to offer detailed dissections, since I have an early morning tomorrow:
- I think Huckabee won. Front-runners Giuliani and Romney at various times came off as childish, hardcore politicians, or as dancing around uncomfortable questions. Thompson, Hunter, and Tancredo didn’t strike me as being particularly memorable. Ron Paul gets credit for sounding not too much like a nut, and doing carrying the banner for his netroots; those ranks may expand a little, but I doubt that he gained support with Joe Average Mainstream Republican.
At least Huckabee held true to being likeable, and on the surface seeming fairly straight-talking. Although he didn’t do much to dispel my reservations about him…I do like the guy.
- I had hoped that this debate would redeem the concept of the YouTube debate. I’ll give CNN credit for doing a better job in question selection (no snowmen, and the silliness was kept to a minimum), and I do like how using citizen-submitted questions seemed to cover a broader range of topics than we’ve seen in other debate formats. However, the overall effect seemed spoiled by the crowd. (I’d be interested in hearing if there’s a back story there.)
- Giuliani gets credit for being the only GOPer that really got the idea of a YouTube-style campaign ad. The others were all just regular ads…save the strategic attack ad from Thompson.
Tags:
2008 Elections · Republicans · Debate · Giuliani · Huckabee · Romney · Ron Paul · Youtube Debate
