YouTube Debate Round One

What a night! The first YouTube debate is in the history books.

Image credit: Matthew Rond for CNN© 2007. A Time Warner Company. All rights reserved.

If you're wondering who was responsible for which questions of the thousands submitted got asked, blame these folks:

I don't envy their jobs. Not surprising, there were obviously a large volume of really good, deserving questions submitted. Not an easy task! Just going through the almost 3,000 videos had to have been a challenge. CNN should also be commended on leaving the opportunity to submit videos open until 3:00am this morning.

If you go to YouTube, they currently have a listing of all 39 video questions that were used in tonight's debate. If you're interested, check it out soon! This page is always being updated & there's no indication on how long this list will be available.

Thanks to CNN, we have some exclusive pictures of the debate preparations.

Image credit: Matthew Rond for CNN© 2007. A Time Warner Company. All rights reserved.

I was thrilled to see that the set that was used in New Hampshire was back again for this debate.

Image credit: Matthew Rond for CNN© 2007. A Time Warner Company. All rights reserved.

Just in case you still need a score card to keep track of all the folks running this year, the participants in tonight's debate were:

Sen Mike Gravel	Sen Chris Dodd	Sen John Edwards	Sen Hillary Clinton
Sen Barack Obama	Gov Bill Richardson	Sen Joe Biden	Rep Dennis Kucinich

Since the questions were coming from the people, we were sure to get at least some that would not have otherwise been asked. Here are a few of the interesting questions posed to the candidates:

• If you had to choose any republican as your running mate, who would it be?
• How do Obama and Clinton respond to criticism that they are not black enough, not feminine enough?
• Should women register for selective service?

With the debate being held at the Citadel, the Military College of South Carolina, I thought it was very appropriate that they took a moment to recognize the over 1,100 graduates that have served in Iraq or Afghanistan and the 12 that have died since 9/11/2001.

One of my favorite lines of the night came from Gov. Richardson when he responded to the “politics over conscience on the Iraq war" question when he said, “the lives of our young troops are more important than George Bush’s legacy.”

Asking the candidates to do their own 30 second YouTube video had mixed results. Some of the candidates used it as another 30 second commercial opportunity. Others, took a lighter approach. I thought Senator Dodd’s “white hare” video was cute.

One of my favorite moments of the debate was one of the lighter ones. The question about Al Gore that was then followed up with the question from the snowman about global warming.

The little snowman was just too cute!

Anderson Cooper was an excellent moderator for the debate. He kept the candidates on topic as much as possible and allowed them to respond to comments directed towards them by the other candidates.

The post debate program included a special edition of the Situation Room with Wolf Blitzer.

The commentary included:

Maria Elena Salinez from Univision and Roland Martin

Tom Foreman providing us with some fact checking on the statements the candidates made.

A special edition of the Cafferty File with Jack Cafferty.

Focus groups from New Hampshire with Mary Snow and Nevada with Ted Rowlands.

Notice the slot machines in the background?

Bill Schneider with the buzz words used by the candidates.

A report from Carol Costello about the candidate's body language.

It was interesting that the men were nervous and Sen. Clinton appeared to be the most relaxed and projected the best non-verbal cues.

Overall, I thought the debate was a huge success. I loved the idea of letting anyone submit a question & having a real chance of getting it answered by the candidates. Watching tonight’s debate was fascinating. What I found disappointing was that although many of the candidates actually answered the question that was asked. They only gave the very briefest answer to the question and then morphed their rely into their typical talking points or stump speech or redefined what they thought the person should have asked.

Tell us what you think. We'd love to hear your thoughts on tonight's debate.

What were your favorite questions?

Who were the winners?

Who were the stinkers?

The concept of this debate was truly unique and original...

Was the outcome equally as unique & original?

Do you think that it achieved its goal?

Or did it just force the candidates to get creative on how to turn the answers into a stump speech?

With any type of debate or political process, there's always someone who feels left out. How does this type of debate compare to more traditional ones? Does it foster inclusion? Or alienate those that aren't technically savvy?

You don't think that the debate coverage ends tonight, do you? American Morning's John Roberts will be broadcasting tomorrow morning from South Carolina. Do you think we'll get to see this interview in the morning?

Thanks again to CNN for providing us with some exclusive pictures from tonight's debate!