You Tube is making us even weirder than we already are

Did anyone catch the You Tube CNN debate tonight? I don't have cable, so I listened to it on the radio, which, I'm sure, left me with a different impression.

I go back and forth on how I feel about this whole web 2.0 thing. It's a love hate thing—getting cheap thrills from hearing people air their dirty laundry; being totally sick of hearing people air their dirty laundry. Obviously I buy into it in a most self-indulgent manner (witness this stinkin' blog), but, you know what I mean. The questions that the CNN police vetted were actually okay, and in keeping with the theme of giving the people what they want, I thought that they were very direct and approached topics in a way that wouldn't be allowed in an official debate, even ones in which audience members are allowed their chance at the mike.

But even with the videos they played tonight there were some weird moments: babies talking about healthcare, questions posed in a musical format, a super creepy guy who who pulled out a gun and called it his baby. And, again, this is just what I gleaned from the radio— the audience laughed a lot at the videos, so I think I must have missed some even wackier stuff. And think about the number of videos they had to cull through to pick out intelligible, PG versions. Can't you picture people dressed as Darth Vadar or imitating Bill Clinton? It's like everyone wants to be a comedian, to entertain, to get attention previously reserved for actors or TV anchors or people that had a legitimate reason to be on TV. We expect our voices to be heard, even when we're saying something stupid or racist or creepy. It's like America's Funniest Home Videos started it; Big Brother and American Idol made it 1,000 times worse, and webcams put the nail in the coffin. Ah, technology, the great equalizer.

Anyway, I enjoyed the debate. The audience was kind of punchy and excited, and they laughed a lot. During the intro, Anderson Cooper warmed up the crowd with a few silly jokes, which kind of made me feel like I was watching those few awkward first minutes of the Oscars. But then he turned things around. The pace of questions was pretty brisk, and i liked the fact that the audience—and the candidates&mdash seemed to enjoy participating in the debate. It felt like... democracy.

As a side note, my man Kucinich performed respectably but this wasn't his best night. He somehow managed to come off as being even more shrill than usual. There was one good moment when revealed himself to be the only candidate who supports paying out reparations to African Americans. Fortunately, Mike Gravel was on the scene, proving that Kucinich is only the second craziest candidate in the running.