Tuesday, November 27, 2007
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Live from St. Pete
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Posted by:
Patrick Ruffini at
11:16 PM
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Tomorrow morning, I'll be heading down to St. Petersburg for the Republican Party of Florida CNN/YouTube debate. I'll be blogging, vlogging, and Twittering throughout the event. After the debate, I plan to head into over to the spin room and hopefully catch a few words with the candidates and top staff, and turn the camera on the media types.
It's been four months since the big Save the Debate fight, but a lot has changed since then. With 36 days to go till Iowa, this is now one of the last big debates of the cycle and could easily serve as a turning point, rewarding the candidate who is quick on his feet and attuned to the new media environment. Had the candidates simply accepted the September 17th date, the "Internet debate" wouldn't have been anywhere near as crucial. Watch for this to be the most watched primary debate so far this cycle. Already, YouTube users have submitted more questions for the Republicans than for the much-hyped Democratic debate.
Four months ago, there was a real danger our candidates would get left permanently behind when it came to the dominant medium of the 21st century. The YouTube snub seemed to symbolize an indifference to competing with Democrats in a key strategic battleground.
Today, our candidates are getting it. Mike Huckabee is reinventing his campaign and surging in Iowa with help from his bloggers. Fred Thompson did get it for a while... until he sacked key new media savvy staffers like Mark Corallo and decided to run an uninspiring cookie cutter campaign. Mitt Romney crowdsourced admaking with results better than his traditional media team. And let's not forget rhymes-with-Pon-Raul.
Republicans meet in St. Pete at the cusp of real success online. I for one am hoping they all do well tomorrow night.
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"I'll be blogging, vlogging, and Twittering..."
Twittering?
How gay is that?
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YouTube a regular part of their day?
Bread and Circuses! We need the candidates to meet with REAL LIVE PEOPLE and address REAL ISSUES not which style necklace they prefer.
Do they favor amnesty for illegal aliens, or not?
Will they defend our borders and national sovereignty, or not?
What do they plan to do to prevent another 9/11 caused by terrorist who slip across our unguarded borders ans smuggle in weapons?
Why should we believe them?
What has been their track record and what would they do differently with the value of hindsight?
Cute little cartoons and narcissistic amatuer film-makers don't energize the Republican base
(although it may get some CNN-friendly people away from their normal TV shows). |
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I still think this debate is a really, really bad idea. The candidates did a poor judgement accepting this ambush. |
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Patrick is just wrong on the affects and results of the "dominant media of the 21st century." Perhaps he's been smoking too many 80's valueless tech stock certificates.
I would argue that the internet and convergent communications (i.e. voice, data, and video) has given us more channels and more content volume, but has given us less content quality and less common understanding.
Our new modes of communication are highly efficient for communicating raw information, but are highly inefficient for joining people together in true conversation. We communcate more and yet are further away from each other in emotion and understanding.
In this context, Citizen questions on YouTube is a gimmick that doesn't add anything truely new. Rather, the format enables all the negative attributes of TV (staged, edited, unreal, manipulatable) yet doesn't add anything new beyond roving remote cameras across the country to gather citizen questions.
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Because Duanne is already digging the pit to stick you in, and then Hugh is going to cover your exposed head with honey and let the fire ants out.
They are convinced that the GOP (and especially beloved Mitt) will be attacked. CNN will use YouTube to be especially unfair.
Perhaps that is true.
I assume they will be attacked, but that they can hold their own and prevail. |
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I for one do not trust CNN. Who cares if the 4000 questions are from real people. Out of 4000 CNN can find every angle they want to pursue.
I am a lot more worried about CNNs agenda than I am about the Rep party not using the internet effectively. The candidates have the best talent in the world that money can buy. They will use every tool that is helpful to the full extent.
It would be a whole lot better to randomly select 10 Registered Republicans from the first 5 primary states and let them select the questions submitted on You tube. That would eliminate the CNN agenda.
The talking heads could do the follow up questions if they need to feel important.
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