Dartblog

CNN is still doing its ‘historic’ YouTube debates with presidential candidates. Mostly that’s a silly idea, I think, because the questions are very poor. (Though not much worse than the ones TV news anchors would themselves ask, I suppose.)

I just spent a few moments browsing through some of the questions. Many are enjoyably bad. There were even a few good ones. Here are some suggested videos.

1. This boy calls himself “Big Bad Carla” and wants to know what the candidates would do about hatas that be out on the street.

2. This fellow introduces his question by saying, “This is a question.” Then he asks, quite laughably, whether the candidates will support creationism in public schools.

Of course, in asking that he’s no less intelligent than many at Dartmouth who recently threw themselves into a creationism scare. I do wonder how many people actually understand about creationism, and that it is entirely distinct from theism itself.

3. Here are two joyously stereotypical college students asking the sort of questions that college students were meant to ask. This young man asks about hate crimes, because “racism is one of the biggest problems in America.” And this clip is just precious. He’s a Brandeis student interning at an NGO of one sort or another, and he wants to know how the next president will end “extreme poverty.”

4. This one is actually not bad—a question for Obama on whether he’d consider hiring Colin Powell. And then an Elvis impersonation.

5. OK, now this Durham gal is impressive. You’ll have noticed that almost every submission is a smarmy sort of embed-a-critcism question, delivered with the distasteful self-righteousness for which young folks are deservedly known. Rachel also presumes the answer to her question. But she backs up her opinion with a set of facts, and is plainly passionate about her subject rather than ired in it.

And she says “thank you” at the end.

6. John, a 20 year old from Connecticut, believes “without a doubt” that Hillary Clinton will be the best president.

7. Here is a 16 year old with a bowtie and a query.

8. This video captures the warp and woof of the event, I’d say.

9. Mike Weiner from Maryland speaks very loudly. He wants to know how the next president will heal our relationships with our enemies and within ourselves.

10. Young Robert is serious about reading his massive book.

11. Kristina from Phoenix is adorable, but alas her question makes no sense. Very polite, though. Why is it only the girls who say “thank you”?

12. Oy, here is another intern at that anti-poverty NGO. Julia is from Boston. I reckon she has successful parents, is going to all the right schools, &c. She wants to know why government subsidies are going mostly to large farms, not small ones. Hard to believe that a Boston teenager really cares about the family farm, but here’s the reason, Julia: Small farms are unworkable in the advanced economy of the United States. Large farms realize economies of scale that produce larges amounts of food at low cost, which is why they are successful. Your employer is religiously anti-development and wants to undo many of the luxuries industry has brought into your life. That is why you are asking about saving small farms.

13. Finally, here’s a good one.

UPDATE: Can you believe I went through all those videos without hearing a single person use the word “Orwellian”? Here’s one.