Republican YouTube Debate On Hold
The weekend announcement seems inevitable, given the combination of right-leaning blogosphere objections and candidate Rudolph Giuliani advising the world that he had a schedule conflict and wouldn't appear. His announcement was followed by Mitt Romney's ("I think the presidency ought to be held at a higher level than having to answer questions from a snowman.").
Only Sen. John McCain (R-AZ), Rep. Ron Paul (R-TX) and former Wisconsin Gov. Tommy Thompson have agreed to the event, sponsored by YouTube, CNN and the Florida Republican Party. The Florida presidential primary is 29 January 2008.
Conservative radio host Hugh Hewitt is worried that "moonbats" will flood the question pool. In other words, either he doesn't trust Republicans to generate compelling questions or he thinks CNN would pick questions simply to embarrass candidates. Does Hewitt really believe it was a Democrat who posed the YouTube question (that CNN did not pick) asking for male Democratic candidates to bare their chests?
Not all conservative bloggers object to the format. David All challenges Republican candidates to connect with real people by participating in the debate. And Michael Bassik points out that "there are 3.3 million self-identified Republicans on the user-generated video site versus 3.1 million Democrats."
Sign the petition if you want to encourage Republican candidates to participate in the debate. There is also a Facebook group:
Attend the YouTube debate, and you may get a tough question or two. Don't attend, and millions of Americans will wonder if you were too afraid to answer questions from the Internet, just as Democrats were afraid to go on Fox News.
Symptomatic of Deeper Issues
Click To Watch YouTube Clip
And, as Wired also notes, candidate reluctance to appear in this debate format may signal which party most values the online voter.
After all, the Washington Post reported that in March the John Edwards website for president had more unique visitors than the combined audiences of Giuliani, McCain and Romney.
But this is more than eyeballs. It's also money. More from the WaPo:
The top three Democrats, Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton, Obama and Edwards, amassed more than $14 million over the Internet in the first three months of 2007; in contrast, the top three Republicans, Giuliani, McCain and Romney, collected less than half of that, $6 million. Furthermore, ABC PAC, the conservative fundraising site, has raised $385 so far for Republican presidential hopefuls; Act Blue, its liberal counterpart, has collected about $3 million for Edwards alone.
Perhaps there are more Democrats following their primary candidates than Republicans are following theirs. But maybe this is a reflection of Democrats more actively engaging those who are online. As I noted last week, CNN viewers in the 18-34 demographic the most ever for a cable news debate since the first one in 1992. This is a demographic that the Republicans should not ignore: it's 24% of the total U.S. population.
The Risk of Ignoring Under 30s
The Harvard Institute of Politics reported that in the 2004 election, 74 percent of college students
reported voting; moreover, 16 percent donated money and 15 percent volunteered on a political campaign. That's twice as many volunteers as 2000 and twice as many voting as those not attending college.
(pdf)
For perspective, in 2004, there were more voters under-30 over-65. And, according to Harvard, the young vote made in a difference in Virginia in 2006, where Webb defeated Allen by 9,329 votes, and in Montana, where Tester defeated incumbent Senator Burns by 3,562 votes. (ppt)
Finally, this tidbit from the passionate young Republicans who are urging their elders to join the 21st century:
A recent poll showed Democrats with a staggering 24-point advantage among 18 to 29 year old voters.
I can't guarantee that participating in the YouTube debates will narrow that gap, but I can guarantee that not participating will widen it.