Republicans to Face Off on CNN/YouTube Debate
November 28, 2007
(Long Island New York) — Republicans will square off tonight (Wednesday) in the race for the White House as presidential candidates face off in the CNN/YouTube debate.
The candidates will be fielding video questions submitted by the public via the Google owned and operated YouTube.com Web site. YouTube.com says almost 5,000 video questions have been submitted, more than twice the number for the Democratic debate. CNN is likely to choose about 40.
Republican presidential candidates include:
Rudy Giuliani 28%, Fred Thompson 19%, John McCain 16%, Mitt Romney 11%, Mike Huckabee 10%, *Ron Paul 5%, Duncan Hunter 4%, and Tom Tancredo 3%
* A piece on CNN television titled the Ron Paul Revolution, as of this writing, just reported Ron Paul ahead of Mitt Romney and Mike Huckabee, although the above figures (taken from the CNN website) have not been updated and/or do not reflect the same.
With six weeks to go until the Iowa caucuses, the stakes in this debate are higher. The eight men haven’t debated in a month. Polls suggest former Massachusetts governor Mitt Romney leads in Iowa and New Hampshire, while former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani holds a commanding lead here in Florida; Sen. John McCain (R., Ariz.) is chipping away at Romney’s lead in New Hampshire, and former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee is surging in Iowa.
Polls also suggest many Republican voters are open to switching allegiances, particularly to someone deemed better suited to challenge Democratic front-runner Hillary Clinton next November.
The CNN/YouTube debate puts Florida in the political spotlight. But Florida hasn’t played a crucial role in primary politics in a generation. That’s changing. Now that the state’s moved up the date of its primary to January 29, Florida has become a primary player. Wednesday’s debate will be the third presidential showdown held in Florida this year.
Adding to Florida’s importance is what follows its primary. Florida is the last state to vote before Super Tuesday. That comes one week later, on February 5, with contests in more than 20 states from coast to coast, including California, Illinois and New York.
Plenty of fireworks are expected at the event, whose tech-savvy citizens often ask comical and difficult to answer questions via video.
CNN senior vice president David Bohrman says :The web is still too immature a medium to set an agenda for a national debate”
“If you would have taken the most-viewed questions last time, the top question would have been whether Arnold Schwarzenegger was a cyborg sent to save the planet Earth,” says Bohrman, the debate’s executive producer. “The second-most-viewed video question was: Will you convene a national meeting on UFOs?”
Tune in tonight to CNN at (8 p.m. EST)
Posted by News LI Editor · Edited by Brianna - Filed Under Politics
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One Response to “Republicans to Face Off on CNN/YouTube Debate”
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Hi, what did you mean by “CNN television has just reported Ron Paul ahead of Mitt Romney and Mike Huckabee, although the figures are not updated on the CNN website.”? What exactly did they say, and what poll are you referring to? Thanks.
- Posted by: andy