Democrats YouTube debate
Updated on 20 June 2007
The US presidential candidates get ready for a grilling, YouTube-style
You know how it normally goes when politicians get together to take part in a television debate.
A man with grey hair and a grey suit asks predictable and censured questions to a bunch of politicians, mostly men, also in grey suits. Interaction with actual voters is something almost completely out of the question.
Not so with CNN's July debate between the candidates for the Democrat nomination for US president.
That's because anyone can record a video question, upload it to YouTube and then they'll be played to the candidates.
While the aim for this exercise is obviously connect voters to politicians and elicit an unexpected policy pronouncement as a result of an off the wall question, the videos are open for all to see.
Now that might mean members of the campaign team watching hundreds of videos but given the amount of money some of the candidates have already raised, this might not be as big a task as it seems at first.
