The US campaign snowballs

Present Tense Shane Hegarty There are plenty of ways to jazz up a political debate, but a snowman asking a question about global…

Present Tense Shane HegartyThere are plenty of ways to jazz up a political debate, but a snowman asking a question about global warming is about as novel as they've come.

On Monday night, the interminable US presidential contest got surreal when the Democratic nominees faced off against each other over questions asked by the public, through YouTube. Of the 3,000 questions posed, 39 were selected by CNN. The animated snowman was among them.

Others included an American in a Darfur refugee camp, a soldier serving overseas and a man whose son had died in Iraq. Brothers spoonfed their father, an Alzheimer's patient, in one clip; in another, a man asked about gun control while holding a firearm named "Baby". "He needs help," said candidate Sen Joe Biden, in one of the snappier responses.

A big screen displayed the questions to an audience quite obviously relishing the occasion. The eight candidates, meanwhile, were ranged against a set that wouldn't have looked odd at the Eurovision. The whole thing was exciting, fresh, thoroughly engaging - and terribly lazy.

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US television news appears to have become so meek that not only has it stopped asking the hard questions, it gets viewers to do so on its behalf - but only in a controlled way. Questions were recorded, posted, filtered by CNN, selected, and eventually put to the candidates. And if they were not answered to the questioner's satisfaction, they can post a YouTube video to someone who gives a damn.

It was about creating an illusion of how technology could let the public in on the debate. But all those questioners were doing was sending an electronic letter or making a video phone call. They were only asking questions that could just as easily have been asked by the audience.

Still, it was successful. The Republican Party's candidates will have their own version in September. Following that, the presidential debates proper will almost certainly adopt similar tactics when they roll around next year.

And through it all, some ravenous television producer on this side of the Atlantic will be watching. Britain's general election is due in a couple of years' time, and don't be surprised if Gordon Brown and David Cameron (or whoever) are asked to conduct their debate by iPhone. And Ireland will have its own general election a couple of years after that again, when the innovation of this year's televised debate - asking party leaders to give a one-minute pitch in the style of quiz show contestants - might seem almost Neolithic in comparison.

Here, though, we already set both public and journalists upon our elected representatives quite regularly. Our broadcasters are not so meek - in fact, they too often appear frenzied. A generation has been brought up on the "bad cop" routine so brutally perfected by Jeremy Paxman that they believe it is a journalist's duty to gnaw at everyone from the Taoiseach to the weatherman.

But at least they have the confidence to ask questions, and our own political debates - if immediately anti-climactic - did have an impact on the most recent general election. The US press might have praised the "freewheeling" element introduced by YouTube, but the inability of Enda Kenny and Gerry Adams to react in genuinely unpredictable debates, steered by attentive journalists, left its mark on the Irish national consciousness.

Meanwhile, in this part of the world, the public is already given a regular chance to question politicians. This offers a vital egalitarianism, an occasional moment when a servant of the people gets reminded of that status. In Britain, both Margaret Thatcher and Tony Blair have stumbled during such moments (although I'm struggling to think of a recent occasion on which Bertie Ahern has exposed himself to the dangers this can bring). And here, even if the Questions and Answers audience seems too often bulked out with party hacks and politics undergrads, at least the opportunity is available to anyone who wants it.

In the US, that rarely happens. A phalanx of men in black suits and sunglasses, bolstered by platoons of handlers, often stand between the public and the politicians. And they are aided by the complicity of the media. The YouTube debate may bring American TV journalism out of an era of timidity, but only towards an era of gimmickry.

By the time our own candidates' debates come along, we'll know how much of this trend will have impacted on television here. In the meantime, the Republican Party's debate is next. And if you think one guy with a gun was a novelty for a political debate, wait for this. There'll be men with bandoliers strapped across their chests.

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