Last night's debate: A missed opportunity

Last nights supposed "town hall" style debate fell far short of what a truly people-powered debate could look like. With questions coming from hand-picked audience members - and just 4 questions coming from the Internet - there was a huge missed opportunity here to engage more voters directly with the candidates.

The Commission on Presidential Debates, when it announced the debate series last fall, pointed to the Nashville debate as the one that would engage new media:

"The second departure from past CPD formats will be the introduction of internet access to the presidential town meeting debate," the Commission stated in a press release. "Questions solicited by Internet will be included with those from citizens on the stage with the candidates... The Commission believes that by including questions from Internet participants, we will enhance and expand the effectiveness of the town meeting debate. This technique has been employed in different ways during many of the primary debates. We will continue to learn from its use in the primary season, and we intend to consult with experts in information technology who can help us integrate it."

The Commission, to their credit, did work with MySpace to develop MyDebates.org - a site where people could submit questions for Tom Brokaw's review. The site also has some nice polling functionality and allows you to toggle through the debate footage by issue. While these are features that most platforms already provide (ours included), MyDebates.org did present a nice interface to engage with the content.

But it was not a way to influence the actual debate itself, and let citizens drive the questioning. It's impossible to imagine the Brokaw and his staff could actually look at the thousands of questions submitted and surmise which were most prevalently on the mind of voters. For that to happen, you need to tap into the wisdom of crowds.

As we've mentioned here before, Our friends at Google have done just that with a new platform called, "Google Moderator". The platform allows you to submit a question for the candidates, and vote on the ones you like most. Bad questions, spammed questions, and other inappropriate material gets surpressed by the most active users, and the most prevalent questions rise to the top of several different issue buckets. We started a version of Moderator for the debates that you can see here.

This is the kind of format that truly taps into the power of the Internet to insure the questions most on the minds of voters reach the candidates in a debate. Jose Vargas points that out in his column in today's Washington Post.

However - just because it didn't happen in the live debate, doesn't mean the candidates can't still answer the top questions via Google Moderator - and post those answers to their YouTube channel.

In fact, one candidate already has: Bob Barr. See below his YouTube video response to the top questions on Moderator. Would be great to see the McCain and Obama campaigns follow suit.



As we've said before, our CNN/YouTube Debates had a format that pushed the role of the citizen forward - and there is still a long way to go and lots of opportunities to engage more voters in our most important public forums.

To learn more from a bipartisan group that's doing great work in this area is the Open Debate Coalition -- see their website here.

Search the Debates on You Choose '08

Thanks to some of our sharp engineers here, we have a new tool on You Choose '08 through which you can search the presidential debate video footage by keyword, and jump straight to the section that you're most interested in. See more here:

Playing the Expectations Game on YouTube

In preparation for tonight's town hall debate -- the second of three between presidential candidates John McCain and Barack Obama -- the Democrats are trying to raise expectations for McCain's debate performance sky-high, arguing that the town hall format has always been Senator McCain's strong suit. The DemRapidResponse YouTube channel, which is run by the Democratic National Committee, released an advertisement today that mashes-up dozens of news clips of media pundits, journalists, and even the candidate himself, declaring that the folksy, direct approach of the town hall meetings allows McCain to shine.



High expectations for McCain raise the bar to his success, but the Senator's performance in Town halls is legendary - he's done over 100 so far, and repeatedly asked Senator Obama to join him in townhalls all summer long.


See for yourself tonight, when the two candidates go head to head in Nashville, Tennesee at 9 pm ET. The entire debate will also be available here on YouTube on the C-SPAN channel after the live taping.

It's going to get more ugly from here on out

It's become obvious that both campaigns are going on the attack on YouTube this week - McCain just released another negative ad on their YouTube channel:



...and the Obama campaign, seemingly making up for lost time, just launched a documentary on McCain's involvement in the Keating 5 back in the early 80s.



Keep your head down - the cross fire is going to pick up even more.

You Choose '08: Monday Hotlist

Team McCain goes after Biden, a union leader give a passionate speech on Obama and racism, Jessica Alba gets political, and a singer-songwriter humorously vents his political frustration. Here’s this week’s Monday Hotlist.

Lies and Sighs (JohnMcCaindotcom)




Jessica Alba's Declare Yourself Challenge (ibeatyouvids)




AFL-CIO's Richard Trumka on Racism and Obama (cameo9876)




The Two McCains - Episode 3 - "My Foreign Fallacy" (lunaticsandliars)




Matt Griffo - Original Political Song (senorgriffo)

McCain campaign uses YouTube debate moment to hit Biden

Ever wonder how the debate over whether or not the candidates would meet directly with foreign dictators got started?

Well, it got started by a YouTuber - Stephen Sixta. Back in the Democratic primary CNN/YouTube debate, Sixta asked the candidates if they would meet "seperately, without pre-condition, during the first year of your adminsration... with the leaders of Iran, Syria, Venezuela, and North Korea?" Obama answered "Yes", and when Anderson Cooper asked Sixta to respond, he said he wanted to hear from Senator Clinton - who said that she would not.

That moment was the start of the biggest foreign policy difference between Senators Clinton and Obama, a difference that has continued into the general election between Obama and McCain. And today, the McCain campaign released an ad - accusing Joe Biden of mis-representing his running-mates' stance - and they used the YouTube clip to prove it:

Register To Vote: Deadlines looming!

The U.S. presidential election is just over a month away, but you won't be able to exercise your right to vote on November 4 unless you've first registered to vote. And those deadlines are approaching fast - in many states, the deadline is next Monday, October 6.


How do you find out where to register? Google has created a great maps platform into which you can type in your home address and get information on where to register in your state - you can find it at maps.google.com/vote.


If you want to learn more about this easy-to-use platform, see this video made by our friends at Google, which we're currently featuring on the Worldwide homepage. We're also featuring two more voter registration videos -- one was shot by Leonardo DiCaprio and friends, especially for the Google Maps platform launch, and the second comes from YouTube's own Citizen Kate, who participated in the "Voter Vlog Tag" project, a YouTube community project started by JoeFelice that aims to get YouTubers to tag each other with the task of getting their friends to register to vote.





Keep your eyes peeled for the creative ways YouTube users are utilizing the site to encourage you to vote, and make sure to get out and register NOW on Google's new platform! And as always, stay on top of the latest election news directly from the candidates on our You Choose '08 platform.


Yours,
Steve G.
YouTube News & Politics

CitizenTube Friday Five

Biden and Palin go head to head, Leonardo DiCaprio and friends have a message for unregistered voters, citizens protest against the proposed bailout, and Diddy tells us why he's afraid. Check out this week's Friday Five.

Full Vice Presidential Debate with Gov. Palin and Sen. Biden (CSPAN)



Full coverage of the first--and only--VP debate between Biden and Palin.


5 Friends (5friendsvote)



Leo DiCaprio and friends urge people to register to vote.


Protesting the Bailout (TimeMagazine)



Protesters voice their disapproval of the proposed Wall Street bailout.


Diddy Blog #24 - Sarah Palin Scares Me (BadBoyRecords)



Diddy tells us why he's afraid of Sarah Palin.


09.29.08: God Bless Our Two-Party System (vlogramen)



A young vlogger voices his discontent with the two-party system.

Every Presidential Debate to go on the YouTube Homepage

Political content on YouTube has truly reached a fever pitch. And at no other time is this more significant than in the hours leading up to, during, and after the presidential debates. That's why we're working with CSPAN to put all of the debates on our homepage, so that voters can see the entire debate on YouTube.

And the YouTube community is responding well - last week, the first presidential debate got over 880,000 views and a 4.5-star rating.

While we usually are very careful about posting political videos on our homepage - we take very special care to insure we are non-partisan - presidential debates are unique opportunity to help voters of all politcal persuasions discover and engage with political content from both candidates, and decide for themselves which canididate they prefer.

We just posted the Palin/Biden debate on the homepage... let's see if it gains more views than the first McCain/Obama debate did...

"I'm Voting Democrat" (or not)

Many of you might remember a video from several months back entitled “I’m Voting Republican,” which lampooned the various reasons why people might vote for John McCain and the GOP come November. Well, a company by the name of VerticalBlu is settling the score with their most recent video entitled “I’m Voting Democrat,” which makes fun of Obama-supporters and their various buzz-words (hope and change, anyone?). Set to Ray Charles’ rendition of “America,” the video features several U.S. voters (played by actors) who tell us why they’re voting Democrat in ’08: “I’m voting Democrat because I’m an elitist." “I’m voting Democrat because Obama’s black.” “I’m voting Democrat because I believe celebrities should tell me who to vote for.”

Technology and Violence in Kenya

The Berkman Center for Internet and Society just released a report on the role that technology played in the violence in Kenya earlier this year. We reported in January how YouTube was used to document the post-election riots in Kenya, when the nation's public broadcaster used their YouTube channel to share the startling images of violence with the rest of the world. The Berkman study looked at how SMS and other grassroots technologies were used for good and for bad - and examined how the catalyzing nature of many-to-many communication has its benefits and its pitfalls.

In particular, the case study - authored by Joshua Goldstein and Juliana Rotich - examines how some Kenyans used mobile technology to motivate thousands of people to take to the streets in violence. Fast communication meant for quicker escalation to the violence. On the flip side, the authors note, activists and bloggers also used such tools as Google Earth and maps to document the violence and showcase the problems to the rest of the world (in the same way NTV used YouTube).

The paper is worth a read - you can find it here.

The paper may cause some to lament how technology has made mob violence a more orchestrated, more effective social ill. But it also highlights the needs of governments to be on top of technology as well. In the Kenyan case, the government asked Safaricom, the nations largest mobile provider, to consider shutting down the service. Michael Joseph, CEO of the company, had a better answer - he sent out a message to every single customer on his network, urging peace and calm.

What would YOU ask McCain and Obama?

[cross-posted from the Google blog]

Millions of Americans tuned in last Friday night for the first Presidential debate between Senator Obama and Senator McCain. Historically, the debates are led by a moderator from a prestigious news organization, asking questions to each candidate and leaving time for a rebuttal from the other. Friday night was no different, with the well-respected Jim Lehrer from PBS serving as the debate moderator.

Many have argued that we should consider new ways for the candidates to debate. Technology has enabled a historic number of voters to learn from and participate in the election process -- something that was well illustrated by the CNN/YouTube debates.

While we're not officially part of the Commission of Presidential Debates, a few days ago we launched Google Moderator. It's a free tool which enables communities to submit and vote on questions for debates, presentations and events. This way, the best and most representative questions rise to the top.

One of the featured series on Google Moderator is U.S. Presidential Debates 2008 which, at the time of this writing, has 730 people already contributing 230 questions that have over 11,000 votes. Top questions submitted so far include:

• Many Americans feel it's unfair to saddle taxpayers with the bailout of irresponsible Wall Street firms. What caused this mess and what is a fair solution which benefits the average American, not the executives who got us here in the first place? - Suggested by Doug H, Los Angeles, CA

• What will be your single, top priority for your first 100 days in office? - Suggested by Shira, Pensacola, FL

• What will you do to reduce the size or increase the efficiency of the US government? - Suggested by Dave M, Philadelphia, PA

Do these questions represent your concerns? What would you ask the Presidential candidates? Who knows, maybe NBC legend Tom Brokaw will have a look at what you're asking before he moderates the next Presidential debate on October 7th in Nashville!

- Katie Stanton, Google