We’ll be here all night, folks, watching the Dems debate at the Citadel. Big question, according to the mainstream media anyway: will someone try to distinguish themselves by attacking Hillary Clinton, who leads in all the polls?
Today’s questions don’t come from moderators — they come from YouTube users who submitted 3,000 questions in the weeks leading up to the debates. CNN showed polls before the debate showing that the younger you are, the more likely you are to use the internet to follow campaign news. But the older you are, the more likely you are to watch a debate on television. What that means is, today is as an inter-generational affair, with old fogies tuning in only to be befuddled by all the youngsters with webcams appearing on their TV screens.
Okay, kicking things off. The first two questions are all crazy and in-your-face. I’m willing to bet CNN could have found enough serious and almost boring questions to make this a conventional affair. But they’ve been billing this as revolutionary for days, so things are going to have to be edgy. This might be a loooong night.
The candidates are taking these questions — no matter what they are — as opportunities to list their talking points. That means that so far, this has been like every debate ever.
All questioners are young, as expected — but several have directly accused candidates of dodging questions, which is unexpected. Having ordinary folks ask questions, instead of cynical reporters who have preconceived ideas of which topics are relevant and which aren’t, is refreshing, I’ll admit. But I wish candidates didn’t have to fit their thoughts into 30 second bites.
Awesome comment below, by the way…
