YouTube and Republican candidates
Considering the overwhelming positive reaction that the YouTube debate has created, it is no surprise that questions for the Republican version of the debate are growing by leaps and bounds. The average joe wants to both be heard and get an answer to the questions they have and believe are important for the next President. The format has been noted to be preferred by most who saw the debates, over the more classic and softball laden traditional format.
Given this type of response, and the attention it has received, you might expect that the Republican candidates are looking forward to this format. That would be incorrect though. At this time only 2 have confirmed they will appear. Those 2 are Senator McCain and Representative Ron Paul, neither a frontrunner in current polls.
Why would Republican candidates not want to show up? I found a site with several answers on why it is important that the frontrunners, and the rest of the field do show up.
Some of the points are quite valid:
In the long run, not participating could be a mistake. Once again Republicans seem to be thinking only of their base. True, that’s what matters in primaries. But in the television age these primary debates help a national audience comprised of voters who might not be part of the base form impressions of candidates.
The night of the debate the story will NOT be about how Republicans participated in this New Era debate, but how many of them stayed away from it. Stories will note how much more freewheeling and populist YouTubers’ questions are. And it will give the impression that the candidates had something to fear by common (if in some cases geeky) computer users getting to ask candidates questions. It’ll fit in with the image of a White House that is refusing to turn over information to Congress. And these images could mesh and hurt the party in the long run.
YouTube is generational and some younger voters will interpret this as meaning the Republican candidates were just too old fashioned and old fogeyish to participate in (or “get”) the new media.”
It’s hard to argue these points I think. The most important being the last one. There is still time left, hopefully the Republican candidates will get on board. Otherwise the long-term backlash may be severe, especially the young voters that seem to be getting more involved in this election than most previous ones.
Do you agree?
