Alt-Debate: Coming This Fall From YouTube and New Orleans

Last year, the Commission on Presidential Debates (CPD) rejected New Orleans as one of its three host cities for the 2008 debates. In a demonstration of technology trumping tradition, New Orleans announced last week that it would be partnering with YouTube and Google to host its own presidential forum on September 18. Louisiana Governor Bobby Jindal and New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin made the announcement in a video post on YouTube that also featured the CEO of YouTube, Chad Hurley, and Senior Vice President of Google, David Drummond.

The forum’s format has not been explicitly outlined but with YouTube as one of the partners, video participation is likely and by adding Google into the mix of collaborators, the forum will offer a new toolset so far unused in this election’s other interactive debates. Hurley and Drummond describe the forum as an extended opportunity for voters to learn about the candidates and the issues with Google's expansive technology while having an ongoing discussion that will be combined with the real-time forum in New Orleans and continue on after the forum.

As a non-CPD debate, New Orleans and Louisiana are gambling on the persuasive power of a sympathetic online community and the presidential candidates’ own interest in New Orleans’s recovery to draw them to the forum. Online speculation suggests that the odds are good that candidates will choose to participate, citing voiced concerns by both Democratic candidates over the lost opportunity for New Orleans when the CPD passed over it as a host; and the general support for New Orleans voiced by McCain in a recent visit. With the pressure of the online community behind them, the odds of their participation increase even more.

Technology is being integrated into the democratic process at a rapid rate, simultaneously opening up that process to a larger group of people with its tools for participation and information. Online tools permit and encourage people to participate in political discourse—with each other and directly with candidates, as this forum and its YouTube/CNN predecessors have shown. People are also being empowered by the extensive knowledge available online about the candidates and issues. And, as this forum illustrates, technology is giving a bullhorn to those people and groups that are overlooked by the establishment. By having an internet platform and reach, New Orleans doesn’t need the backing of the CPD to be confident in drawing the attention of the candidates as well as the national—and probably international—community.