All Seriousness Lost With CNN/YouTube Debates

(Note: This post was never meant to be here. But without it, this blog might not ever be here. You see, this post I originally wrote to be a comment on a YouTube video which featured a man playing a guitar and singing a song about all the Republican candidates. A relatively harmless tune. The only problem was that the video song was the way the CNN/YouTube debate actually began its broadcast to millions of viewers nationwide, which, although I only saw clips and not the live broadcast, I thought took away from the serious nature of the debate. So I opined on the subject, typing in a Microsoft Word document what I thought to be a poignant comment to place on the YouTube version of the video. The only problem was that YouTube had a 500-character limit on comments! Thus, I had to dissect and hack apart what I wrote in order to meet YouTube’s length limitation. Still, I thought, why be forced to have to let what I had originally written go unpublished and unseen by man? The below then became the first post at A Forum for Freedom.)

Folks, whatever happened to the seriousness of the highest office in the land? While I admit that I did not watch the CNN/YouTube GOP debate yesterday, I feel it necessary to voice my opinion on this matter. I believe that the uploaders of the videos are likely to have little to no true political knowledge. The only thing required to post a video for the debate is an Internet connection. How many of the folks who posted videos for the debate did it in a serious and dignified manner so as to bring credit to themselves and to their inquiry? How many really understand the seriousness of politics and know of the Great Conservative-Liberal Divide? I believe in real people asking real questions, such as at a town hall-style debate, not in a video debate where those who ask the questions need not speak directly to candidates and instead hide behind their computer screens or ask questions that are either silly or conducted in a silly nature in order to attract attention.

Would Lincoln, Roosevelt, Kennedy, or Reagan ever appear for such a foolish debate? With CNN/YouTube having conducted both a Democratic and Republican debate, the next leader of the free world did. I don’t care much for these candidates – especially the Republicans, the more serious political party – pandering to the tech-generation with a YouTube debate and profiles on MySpace and other social networking websites. It hurts credibility. I believe all Americans of age should be involved in the political process, but I don’t believe in candidate pandering to any demographic or voting block. It’s issues of national importance that make or break elections and truly matter, not demographic specific ones.

In listening to talk radio today I was able to assess that the Republicans did as good as they could under the circumstances, which I also believe were manipulated by CNN to make the Republicans appear false and to bring on discredit by those not politically savvy enough to decode this agenda by an anti-conservative network. That being said, the Democrats still remain in opposition to appearing on a Fox News debate because they know that they’ll have to answer real questions from real journalists who won’t hand them a cakewalk or spin the questions or responses, as well as knowing that by appearing they would give “credibility” to a news network they oppose because it is fair and not a left-wing home base they feel comfortable in.

YouTube, although full of its share of crazies in both political and non-political aspects, can be a fun place to view and share videos. However, it’s time for America to be America again, and it’s time to bring back the seriousness to the process to determine who will occupy the Oval Office on January 20, 2009.

© 2007 Justin Margeson for A Forum for Freedom. All rights reserved.