Got a question for Obama or Clinton? Join the online debate

Yahoo, Slate and HuffingtonPost.com sympathize with those who want to make all their political decisions online.

The companies on Monday announced plans to host two online-only U.S. presidential debates this fall, giving voters a chance to directly query and evaluate candidates in real time.

Presidential hopefuls have been turning to the Internet to announce their candidacy for nearly a decade, but corporations have more recently been launching efforts to make candidates more accessible on the Web.

Earlier this month, News Corp.'s MySpace.com announced plans to hold a mock presidential election on January 1 and 2, and a number of the candidates have MySpace profiles, including Hillary Clinton, Barack Obama and John Edwards.

The presidential debates on Yahoo, Slate and The Huffington Post will feature candidates who have declared their intent to run in 2008, with one debate set aside for Democrats and the other for Republicans. Charlie Rose of PBS plans to host the debates.

An online audience will submit questions in real time, allowing them to participate in the debate. Viewer questions will also be uploaded on video.

"With presidential candidates (making announcements) online and with campaign ads and fund-raising increasingly online, presidential campaigns are moving to the Internet at breakneck speed," Arianna Huffington, co-founder of The Huffington Post, said in a statement.

The debates are scheduled to be held after Labor Day, on Yahoo Elections, The Huffington Post and Slate.

[Mgump9]

Questions for presidential candidates

I think one of the most important questions to ask and get a clear answer for would be what is their management style and how would they make decisions and carry out policy.

One of the biggest problems with past presidents (and for that matter many politicians) is that they might say what their positions are on certain issues at the time but we don't usually know HOW they will lead. Knowing management techniques is a very important piece of information. George W. Bush campaigned with an image of a compromiser who would listen to other's views and be willing to work with all to craft the best policy to meet as many concerned's interest as possible. We sadly see now that his management technique appears to be anything but this.

I think asking the candidates to state their methods of working with others and give examples to support what they say would be a very important question to explore.

[StanLee98]

We need better choices

Obama or Clinton? Can we still have "none of these" or once again we're heading for a no-choice election?
We need a real person, familiar with life in the US , not another power-hungry career politician.
None of the candidates have answers to important questions. They are of course eager to jump on popular issues: "end the war" and "get rid of immigrants" and so on. They conveniently avoid talking about the consequences and the details of such policies.
Since we have serious shortage of decent candidates, we should "draft" a few more. I don't care if he's a fat smoker with a history of smoking (and inhaling) pot, I want someone with clear understanding of what's going on, what needs to be changed and most importantly how. Let's ignore the political parties and the whole corrupt election process, and let people vote for anyone they like. I'd recommend a Matt Stone / Trey Parker ticket. Of course it would make sense, so it will not happen. Good luck with another Clinton.