Editorial: YouTube electors

Wednesday, July 25, 2007 | 7:16 a.m.

YouTube made a pleasant splash in politics at a debate Monday night where Democratic presidential candidates responded to questions posed by users of the popular Web site.

People used music, photos and props to ask their questions via short video clips at the debate televised by CNN. Occasionally funny, occasionally pointed and typically heartfelt, the questioners brought a freshness to the often stuffy atmosphere found in debates.

One questioner made a music video, with a song asking a question about the No Child Left Behind Act. Two women asked whether the candidates would, if elected, work for the minimum wage. Another questioner filmed a snowman asking, in falsetto, about global warming.

It was entertaining and, although no earth-shattering news was made, the debate brought the average American to the table in a real way. Unlike the staged sense of a town hall meeting, the YouTube debate let people ask the types of questions that cut through the niceties of such affairs.

The mother of a soldier asked, "How many more soldiers must die while these political games continue in our government?"

A California woman wanted to know about the disparity in state voting systems, asking, "If I can go to any state and get the same triple grande, non-fat, no-foam vanilla latte from Starbucks, why I can't I go to any state and vote the same way?"

A man from Boston ended his video by saying, "I know you all are going to run around this question, dipping and dodging, so let's see how far you all can get."

Often blunt and unvarnished, the questions put the debate in the hands of regular people.

Candidates like to say that the nomination is won in the living rooms of early primary states such as New Hampshire and Iowa. What the YouTube debate did is create a much larger living room, inviting everyone in. That is good for democracy.