Fairnbalanced

by digby

Greg Sargent recalls that there was a time when Mitt Romney thought refusing to show for debates was wimpy and cowardly. Now that CNN has offered to move the GOP YouTube debate to a more amenable time for all those Republican candidates who suddenly had scheduling conflicts, Mitt’s taking his time responding.

Apparently these Republicans are scared to death of having to face questions from the public. Their defenders claim the “agenda driven” CNN will sandbag the candidates, but you have to wonder if that’s the case, why the entire field did a debate on CNN just a few weeks ago? Is this some new agenda?

But that is not to say the Republicans are without creative ideas about how to resolve the situation. Blah3 reports that Captains Quarters is floating the idea that would make the whole thing much more fair. Cap’n Ed says:

So what’s the solution? How can we engage voters in a national forum through the New Media, while keeping the debate substantive and serious? I have a simple solution: have CNN cede the editorial/selection process to the New Media, in the form of the blogosphere.

CNN would ask bloggers to form a committee to review the YouTube entries. Since this debate is a Republican primary event, the bloggers should probably represent that segment of the electorate — primarily Republicans, but perhaps with independent/centrist representation as well. The committee would review all of the YouTube entries and narrow them down to around 20, through whatever process and criteria to which these bloggers agree. They would also agree to the order in which the questions would be asked.

How does this solve the argument? It removes CNN from any responsibility for the question selection, shielding them from bias allegations. It puts the onus on the New Media to act responsibly in its question selection. This mechanism truly would make the candidates accountable directly to the people who will vote for them in the primary races. The candidates would have no excuses to avoid this debate, either.

Because, you know, conservative bloggers aren’t “agenda driven” like CNN.

John Cole has a list of sample questions. Here’s one:

Red State- Mr. Giuliani, if Obama is elected, will he declare defeat in Iraq and withdraw our troops before surrendering to Iran, or will he surrender to Iran first?

That sounds about right, but I think we could expect them to say “if Barack Hussein Obama is elected,” don’t you?

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