Tonight! You! And Your Tube! Join The Debate!

This evening, The Most Important Election In Our Lifetime™ will feature the first of two Major Paradigm Shifting Debates in the History of the World® as CNN brings us the YouTube Debate: Democratic Candidate Version, promising to blend cutting edge CNN step-stool technology with plasma-screen enabled podia. We can practically hear the on-air producers right now: "Divert power from the Situation Room! Set Condition One throughout the network!"

Kit Seelye gives New York Times readers the soup-to-nuts of what to expect: a lot of single-shot, ask-a-question into the camera inquiries, to be sure, but the potential is there for many forays "into unexpected territory." CNN's Washington Bureau Chief, David Bohrman, is bullish: "You can't set out to make a revolutionary shift...But you can set out to push the definition of a debate... They will force the candidates to really connect to these people." Seelye also quotes BuzzMachine's Jeff Jarvis, who blogged yesterday: "The YouTube debates could fundamentally change the dynamics of politics in America, giving a voice to the people, letting us be heard by the powerful and the public, enabling us to coalesce around our interests and needs, and even teaching reporters who are supposed to ask questions in our stead how they should really do it."

Of course, with You! asking the questions, what will Anderson Cooper have to do, other than drape himself on the set in some aesthetically pleasing fashion? Cooper told Howard Kurtz: "My primary role is to make sure that the candidates actually answer the questions." Really? Now that truly is unprecedented!

Of course, we're going to be disappointed if this debate features little more than YouTube Nation at their most thoughtful and sober and level-headed. After Mike Gravel YouTubed some cinema moments that would live on the fringes of a David Lynch/Guy Maddin Film Festival, the gauntlet for warped has been thrown down, and we hope some of the clips chosen for tonight rise to the occasion. If you want a sample of what's out there, check out some of the previously noted clips: The Washington Post's pick of the litter from June, along with an accompanying "5 Sorriest Questions" from 10 Zen Monkeys.

Related:
Debates to Connect Candidates and Voters Online [New York Times]
Why the YouTube debates matter [BuzzMachine]

Previously, on Eat The Press
More YouTube Greatness: Mike Gravel Panders to the Cahiers du Cinema Set.

[Image: New York Times]