“There are plenty of conservative questions.”

Q: Exactly how many questions came from Ron Paul supporters? It’s gotta be half of them, right?

AC: “Obviously, Ron Paul supporters are very online, but we’ve got good questions for all the candidates.”

DB: “Ron Paul’s this interesting phenomenon…you don’t know if there are 40 or 4 million supporters. They’re so good online…Only a couple of them (chosen YouTube questions) are directed at Ron Paul.”

Q: Do you feel the New Media vs. Old Media tension when you host this kind of debate? How do you feel about regular Americans posing the questions instead of you?

AC: “I like this format. I like new technology. I think all of this stuff is exciting. It’s interesting. None of us know where it’s going and that’s a good thing.”

Q: In the last couple of debates, the moderators have taken perhaps more licks in post-debate coverage than the candidates did. What do you think about the moderator-as-story?

AC: “There’s just a proliferation of blogs and the chattering classes and people talking. More avenues for people to make their feelings known, which is good.

“Things people would normally grumble at the TV, you now (see published and discussed), which is good and interesting and as it should be. I think that’s why you’re hearing more about it…”

“I think my job is to get out of the way as much as possible and get the questions answered and make sure candidates honor the time people took to ask questions…”

“I certainly hope I don’t become the story, but there’s so many candidates on the stage that somebody’s gonna be unhappy.”

DB: “I’ve been reading a lot…Russert I guess got a lot of criticism…I was surprised at some of the criticism Wolf got. I thought he did very well. The crowd was a little boisterous but there’s passion in politics. No one says you have to hold a debate in a library.”

“It’s always easy to blame the media.”

Q: Are Larry King and Wolf Blitzer totally jealous that you’re the new hotness at CNN?

AC: “(Laughter) Umm, I think they’re still very high on the hotness. I don’t think they have anything to worry about.”

The debate is Wednesday at 8 p.m. on CNN. I'll be in St. Petersburg bringing much more coverage.