Surprise Loser in YouTube Debate: Anderson Cooper

I'm not sure who actually won tonight's CNN/YouTube debate -- distinguished mostly by the top candidates dancing around a series of surprisingly astute questions fielded from the public through the video sharing Web site.

But I know who lost: Host Anderson Cooper.

Clearly overmatched and a little surprised by the increased squabbling among the candidates, Cooper lost control of the debate too many times -- allowing candidates to eat up time with long stretches of one-on-one arguments, and refusing to call out politicians when they avoided answering the questions asked.

For example, one YouTuber faced the camera and said "The death penalty: What would Jesus do?" And even though Mike Huckabee spent long minutes recounting how he debated handing out  death sentence as Governor of Arkansas, he never got to Jesus' part. When Cooper pressed him to answer the question, he said cracked: "Jesus was too smart to run for public office." Answer over.

When Fred Thompson provided a YouTube-style campaign video for CNN which used past clips of Mitt Romney defending abortion and Huckabee appearing to agree to raise taxes, Cooper asked about the attack by saying "Senator Thompson -- What's up with that?" (Thompson looked a little embarrassed before cracking "I just wanted to give my buddies a little more air time.")

The candidates weren't directly confronted about their inability to answer some questions until Cooper turned to Brigadier Gen. Keith Kerr, a retired military man sitting in the audience who castigated the candidates for failing to answer his question about whether they think the American military isn't professional enough to work alongside openly gay people.

Unfortunately, Kerr turned a rebuke for non-answers into a speech about his own story of coming out after leaving military service and the continuing discrimination against gay people in the armed forces. It was another example of how Cooper let an element of the show spin out of CNN's control, violating the channel's own goal of weeding out "gotcha" questions posed by Democrats to embarrass all the candidates.

(Now Republican bloggers and Fox News are reporting that Kerr was a member of a steering committee of gay supporters for Hillary Clinton; Cooper said during his show, Anderson Cooper 360, that CNN would not have used his question if they knew this allegation was true).

Every candidate dropped at least one doozy of a statement: Huckabee wants to eliminate the IRS and rely on retail sales taxes to run the government (he should ask Florida how well that works); Ron Paul wants to eliminate the departments of Energy and Education; John McCain blamed the American people's homefront reactions for losing the Vietnam War while Fred Thompson said overturning the abortion law Roe vs. Wade should be America's "number One priority" and Romney advocated denying the children of illegal immigrants the most basic health and education services.

The America advocated by this bunch sounded like a mean-spirited, paranoid place, where politicians are more comfortable pledging to kick the children of illegal immigrants out of the country than pledging to take on government subsidies handed to big farming companies. (One upsetting moment for me: Duncan Hunter telling the American people to buy American while Christmas shopping when American retailers such as Wal-Mart are stocked to the gills with cheap goods made in China, Korea and Vietnam. Is he going to insist they buy American this Christmas, too?)

Cooper aside, Romney came out the biggest loser here. At turns too slick and too halting, he managed to reinforce his image as a flip-flopper and an overly programmed candidate. McCain sat above much of the infighting like a wise Yoda -- particularly on the issue of waterboarding military prisoners -- but can't get past his support for immigration reform and a still-unpopular war. Thompson showed more life and knowledge of the issues, but offered few new ideas, leaving Huckabee in a great position as the most reasonable, human-sounding candidate who wasn't really attacked very badly during the debate.

My next post will talk a bit about the backstage stuff, including info on the "spin room," where celebrities such as action star Chuck Norris and former Senator George "Macaca" Allen were spinning journalists on the debate's outcome.

Here's the acoustic ballad which kicked off the debate:

       

   

Comments

[James]

I never understand the attacks on Ron Paul wanting to dismantle federal bureaucracies like the Dept. of Education or Energy Dept.

The Constitution does not give the Congress or President the authority to run an education system. It's a state and local issue. If you don't care about the different responsibilities of state/local vs. federal government (Why not?), perhaps the fact that public schools have deteriorated steadily (and costs risen dramatically) since the Dept. of Education was created in 1980 might change your opinion just on a pragmatic basis?

Oh wait, the Dept of Education has been a raging success.... my bad. Ugh.

Try reading the Constitution. The powers and responsibilities of the Federal Government are pretty limited. The fact that we ignore the Constitution today is the primary reason why our country is imploding. Ron Paul speaks truth to power - you just don't want to hear it.

[James]

An addendum to my previous comment...

As you peruse the Constitution, you might start by focusing on the 10th Amendment in the Bill of Rights:

AMENDMENT 10:
"The powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the states, are reserved to the states respectively, or to the people."

[Eric Deggans]

Obviously, you have never had the crushing experience of dealing with an unresponsive state or local bureaucracy.

I don't know how it works in your corner of the country, but here in florida and everywhere else I've lived, local school boards control the spending and direction of the local school disrtricts. they hire and frie the administrators and adopt the policies they feel best used to educate their kids.

The federal bureaucracy provides consistency of education styandards across the country and also provides much-needed financial resources.

Every bureaucracy is problematic. But the federally-backed, locally controlled education system has successfully educated an awful lot of americans over an awfully long time.

I would respectfully suggest that whoever is elected in '08 is going to have a lot more pressing concerns than trying to eliminate an education bureaucracy that is flawed but far from totally broken.

[newres]

The inaccuracies and downright lies in this article are amazing. How did it get in the paper? Oh, yeah, papers no longer care about facts, just their own biases.
It's obvious these debates are loosely controlled. Did you see the messy debate in the last Dem debate with Blitzer?
The stereotypes of the confederate flag, bible, & gun toters really have no place in a debate. We don't need visuals, just intelligent questions, of which there were some, thankfully.

[Eric Deggans]

I find it interesting hen people complain about inaccuracies and then provide no examples.

I have a feeling, newres, that you simply disagree with my opinions. But if you see any facts which are wrong, I will be happy t correct them.

[dreaming]

can someone please find out if anderson cooper is as gay as he seems?

[newres]

Oh for heavens sake, "dreaming", get a brain! That comment/querie is NOT important or relevant.

Thank you, Eric, let me explain my complaint.
I thought Anderson Cooper did a fine job within the setting he was involved, much better than the last Dem debate with Bitzer and worlds above Chris Matthews et al.

The Jesus question, as well as the Bible question, did not belong in the debate. Out of 5,000 questions, they settled for those? But, as you describe Huckabee's answer, it was a worthy answer (he's not my favorite either) and his comment about Jesus not running for public office was right on.

The homosexual Kerr, I agree, was given way too much time and power but I believe CNN knew about him and Cooper didn't have a choice. Sickening. But your comment about Rep bloggers and Fox news was way off. CNN itself broke the news first and Cooper made an apology that night.

Romney did not avocate denying illegals' children basic health and education services. His point was for illegal's children being elegible for college scholarships.

I can't fault you on your final comment about the losers etc. They are your opinions and we know they are opinions. But, your reporting sounded too biased, to the point of being untrue, at least to me.

[Eric Deggans]

i was at the debate site. CNN didn't know about Kerr's ties until the debate was over. I never said the Republican bloggers and Fox News broke story -- just that they were reporting it.

Huckabee's comment about Jesus not running for public office was a great reply. But it wasn't an answer to the basic question: Would Jesus really advocate putting someone else to death?

Romney advocated denying illegal immigrants all basic governmental services, because they were breaking the law. He didn't allow any exceptions to that doctrine that I heard...