Thursday, August 28, 2008
Editorial: Rasoul will debate himself on YouTube
A candidate can't host a debate without leaving the impression the deck is stacked in his favor.
From the RoundTable blog
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Sam Rasoul, the Democratic candidate for Virginia's 6th Congressional District, had a bright idea:
Have voters prepare questions on YouTube for all the candidates, select some and then have the candidates answer them on camera.
Sure beats the stuffy, old-school, sparsely attended, podium-dotted auditorium-stage debates that generally accompany elections. Yawn.
A YouTube debate, or something similar, that lets voters question candidates directly could offer a more vibrant, modern and interactive forum.
It might excite youthful voters turned off by stodgy stump speeches and prompt them to tune it. Or it might even stir older voters who want to be better informed but -- between work, shuffling kids to soccer, coaxing the lawn to revive, making dinner, you know, life -- have too little time or energy to turn out physically for a forum.
But a debate, no matter the platform, must have one fundamental underpinning: a neutral sponsor. The problem with Rasoul's idea is that he decided to execute it himself.
He invited incumbent Republican Bob Goodlatte and independent Janice Lee Allen to join him. To his credit, he presents links to all candidates' Web sites on the electronic form that participants can fill out. He attempted to gain an impartial screener for questions, but his partnership with the Lynchburg Ledger didn't work out as planned. The newspaper couldn't take the lead in hosting a YouTube debate because (consider the irony here) it doesn't have high-speed Internet access.
Rasoul's good intentions don't change the impression, or the reality for that matter, that he is organizing, promoting and running the debate.
His inexperience is showing in that he sincerely believes he can fulfill the roles of both candidate and debate traffic cop. No wonder his opponents aren't interested. Which doesn't mean they aren't interested in his idea. Both Goodlatte and Allen agree a YouTube debate holds promise.
If that debate is going to happen, though, a neutral party is needed to host -- preferably one with high-speed Internet access.
