The youtube debate

Because I didn’t brave it to Builth in the mud and rain ( it may be the ‘Farmers Glastonbury’, but I’m really sorry, I do prefer one of music’s greatest festivals which is Glastonbury) I’ve stayed in sunny Rhos today, and chanced upon the Youtube CNN Presidential candidate debate.

I don’t tend to watch that much television to be honest, partly because I can’t seem to find anything worth watching, and I can’t get freeview where I live… So yes, I watched a small part of the youtube debate. A new way of communicating, and a new way of engaging with the electorate. Of the 3,000 submissions, 39 were chosen, which doesn’t seem like much to me. A variation of a puppet snowman asking a serious question about the threat of climate change, to a father who has lost a son in Iraq, to comments from patients suffering from Alzheimer’s and breast cancer- amongst many.

I have to admit that the questioning, and being able to see people live on screen in their own living rooms, using their own creativity in questioning the candidates was more interesting than the answers produced by the politicians. It was a showbiz affair, with the brightly lit, over indulgent stage production reminiscent of the X Factor or Dance X, (you know the type of reality shows) and all candidates had mini screens at their podiums so that they could see the youtube videos clearly.

I liked the idea of the youtube debate from the outset, if only because I am trying to encourage the powers that be at the Assembly to initiate a variation of this at the Assembly for people who want to either get in touch with an AM, or as a possibility for the petitions committee. It gives the debate an extra level of interest and a chance for those people who either can’t reach studio audiences for live debates, or are not political anoraks, to have their say.

The candidates’ responses were relatively poor, and much of the debate surrounded the timeline for withdrawing troops from Iraq. Hilary Clinton, who I believe is currently the front runner of the Democrats, didn’t stop reiterating that it was time for Americans to come together and unite, for Americans to realise their potential etc etc
( I wonder whether she thought this to be true of her husband’s period in Office?)

Perhaps the most amusing answer came about when the host asked how many of the candidates had travelled in by private jet (as a supplementary to a question on climate change) and all but one showed their hands in a classroom scenario of 5 second shame. Another row sparked after the debate, when Obama was criticised by Hilary Clinton for agreeing to meet in principle with leaders such as Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, Bashar al-Assad, Hugo Chavez, and Fidel Castro. Clinton could show that she was the mature, experienced politician, of course, as she exclaimed, ‘I will not promise to meet with the leaders of these countries during my first year. I don’t want to be used for propaganda purposes’.Hmmm.

All in all, I’m sure that the youtube debate will play a part in the wider development and the role of the web in politics. It has already played a huge role in the US Presidential campaign, and has showed videos of Barack Obama enjoying his time on a family holiday (a politician doing normal things. Gasp!) Nevertheless, there is a danger that it could turn in to a Big Brother farce where boundaries are blurred, but time will tell.

I’m sure youtube, alongside Facebook and Myspace will be overused, but it’s still a way of communicating with voters, and any form of encouraging people to take part in politics must be a positive.