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MANCHESTER, N.H.--It sounded like a good idea at first: let Internet users be part of, virtually speaking, the Democratic and Republican presidential debates on Saturday evening by posting comments on a special Facebook message board.

But it turned out to be one of those ideas that may be better in theory than in practice. During the East coast broadcast of the debates, Facebook users posted around 35,000 "Soundboard" messages, meaning that at perhaps 50 characters each, that's some 1.75 million characters to read during an approximately three-hour period. All of Jane Austen's Pride and Prejudice, by contrast, is only 700,000 characters.

To read all those messages, at 20 per page, you'd have to refresh your browser's screen 1,750 times. That's not even counting comments posted by west coast Facebook users (Facebook, which co-sponsored the debate here with ABC News, said the west coast figures were not yet available).

No doubt, the political twitterers must've felt empowered to know their Soundboard comments were being beamed out to an audience of potentially millions of Facebook users, and, if plucked by ABC's designated Facebook-monitoring reporter on TV, millions of offline viewers as well.

Still, it's a little unclear whether the comments will prove all that useful for campaigns looking to boost their candidates' standing.

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It's not everyday you witness a shotgun-wielding young man sidle up to a politician running for president and ask him at a formal debate, point blank, how he feels about gun control laws. Oh, and follow up by loading the rifle for emphasis and quipping, "Don't worry, you can answer however you like."

And I can't quite picture a typical moderator asking a question as direct as, what is your favorite make, model, and caliber of weapon, or do you believe every word of the Bible?

Yet a virtual version of those encounters is precisely what unfolded at the second iteration of a presidential debate jointly sponsored by CNN and YouTube. There may not have been an appearances from any talking snowman concerned about his snowchild's fate in global warming this time around, but the quirky new format seemed to work as well as the Democratic flavor this summer.

And to think--just a few months ago, it was looking unclear how many Republican candidates would show up, prompting online pleas from young sympathizers to mount a grassroots "Save the Debate" campaign. Sure enough,all eight Republican candidates parked behind podiums on a stage in St. Petersburg, Fla., as a characteristic star-spangled, logo-embossed red-white-and-blue mosaic glowed behind them.

About 5,000 submissions poured in before this round, CNN host Anderson Cooper announced before the games began. That's about 2,000 more than for the Democratic presidential debates, although time could be a factor: The cable network and the Google subsidiary gave only about a little more than a month's notice of their plans before the Democratic debate in July.

All told, the Republican candidates had to grapple with 33 video questions, although very few were answered by a majority of the candidates. Not once did Cooper press for a raise of hands or a quick yes-or-no response, although he did occasionally interject with his own queries.

From the very start, the two-hour event had fireworks, first ignited by a question from a "tough-talking" Brooklynite. He asked Rudy Giuliani whether he planned to "continue to aid and abet the flight of illegal aliens" into the United States if elected president, prompting a fiery back-and-forth with former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney that left Cooper struggling to move the conversation along.

Perhaps the second-most-heated exchange occurred between Rep. Ron Paul and Sen. John McCain, who assailed the Texas congressman's belief that bringing American troops home from Iraq is akin to the "isolationism" that "allowed Hitler to come to power" and "caused World War II."

It would be inaccurate to say the user-generated format was directly responsible for all of the excitement--after all, the Iraq war and immigration have been known to ruffle a few feathers, regardless of who's doing the asking. The tense McCain-Paul tiff, for its part, was actually a diversion from McCain's response to an unrelated question from an animated Uncle Sam, who wondered which contenders support eliminating the federal income tax.

Still, the two-hour event was peppered with moments when user-generated videos added an extra something to the endless stream of early-stage soapboxing on the same major policy issues.

A California guy who appeared to be in his 20s chowed down on an ear of corn and questioned the need for continued federal farm subsidies. (None of the candidates who responded was willing to give them up). A young Texas man gestured to a confederate flag displayed prominently behind him and asked the candidates what they thought of the controversial symbol. (No one was willing to endorse it).

Some of the videos were nothing more than a man or woman seemingly speaking into a basic Webcam from his or her office or apartment, but the delivery of the questions occasionally stood in for less-than-exciting scenery.

A young African-American man from California asked, "Why don't we vote for you?"

In a brief video, one young Indiana man asked of the death penalty: "What would Jesus do?"

The question prompted considerable bobbing and weaving from the two candidates who elected to answer--Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee and Rep. Tom Tancredo of Colorado--even after Cooper intervened with, "The question was, what would Jesus do? Would Jesus support the death penalty?"

One of the more poignant moments of the night arrived when YouTube video-maker Keith Kerr of California, a retired Army brigadier general, asked the candidates to explain why the candidates seem to believe "American men and women in uniform are not professional enough to serve with gays and lesbians."

This question was unique because Kerr, clad in a red button-down shirt, was actually present in the studio audience as well. Duncan Hunter, Huckabee, Romney and McCain each thanked him for his service before defending the policy. Cooper then gave Kerr the chance to respond to their positions. "With all due respect, I did not get an answer from the candidates," he said, his voice quivering and eyes appearing to water.

(Update at 10:42 a.m. PST Thursday: Kerr, it seems, is a member of Hillary Clinton's steering committee on lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender issues, according to a press release at her Web site, which has drawn accusations that the retired officer was a "plant." Clinton's campaign denied any connection in an interview Thursday with the Wall Street Journal.)

As has come to be somewhat of a given, the debate was light on science and technology issues, although one Denver man put together a montage of sorts, imploring the candidates to divulge their "vision for human space exploration"--and whether they'd commit to sending an American to the surface of Mars by 2020.

Once again, Huckabee and Tancredo were the only two candidates who answered the question, and they weren't particularly committal.

If we do send a human to Mars, Huckabee joked, "maybe Hillary can be on the first rocket." The red-state-sympathizing crowd went wild.

And when one video submitter asked whether the candidates planned to rely on their vice presidents as extensively as President Bush has relied on Dick Cheney, McCain suggested he might seek his No. 2's "expertise on telecommunications, on information technology, which is the future of this nation's economy." (McCain, for the record, currently sits on the U.S. Senate Commerce Committee, which deals with both of those issues.)

Given Romney's sordid comments about the animated snowman at the Democratic debates (in short: not his cup of tea), I halfway expected the final question to come from to come from that infamous character. But instead, CNN and YouTube opted to end on another unorthodox note.

"Giuliani," a seemingly breathless Chris Krul of Bonita Springs, Fla., barked into his Webcam, "could you explain why, being a lifelong Yankees fan, that you rooted for the Red Sox in the post-season?"

It was awhile ago that YouTube first allowed video comments on its service, and over time responses in video form began to populate the site--including those that address the original video and those that don't. In theory, Friction.tv is a Web portal built around YouTube's video response feature. In practice, there are few, if any, response videos, though people have been active leaving text comments. (In the interest of full disclosure, Friction.tv is a sponsor for the NewTeeVee Pier Screening Series in which I have been asked to speak on a panel).

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For a while there, the fate of the Republican counterpart to last month's CNN-YouTube debates among Democratic presidential contenders was looking pretty bleak. But it appears that the event in St. Petersburg, Fla., will, indeed take place--albeit a few months later than planned.

CNN and YouTube on Monday issued a brief press release announcing that the candidates will be invited to take the Mahaffey Theatre's stage on November 28. As of Sunday night, John McCain and Rudy Giuliani had agreed to show up for the post-Thanksgiving event, but there was no immediate word on the others, a CNN spokeswoman said.

The date change is tied at least in part to earlier complaints from Giuliani and Mitt Romney, both considered leading candidates, who said they would not be able to make the original September 17 date because of fund-raising commitments. Four candidates--John McCain, Ron Paul, Mike Huckabee and Tommy Thompson, who has since ended his run--had reportedly confirmed attendance at the earlier date.

The blogosphere may have also played a role in getting at least some candidates to rethink their attitude toward the debate. The specter of lackluster attendance ignited a grassroots campaign called "Save the Debate" among Republican bloggers, who continue to urge all of the candidates not to "write off the Internet" or the "youth vote."

"We sincerely hope you will reconsider any decision to snub the critical January 29th primary state of Florida and 51 million unique YouTube users," they said in an open letter to Romney, Sam Brownback, Duncan Hunter and Tom Tancredo. (The Democratic YouTube debate, which averaged 2.6 million viewers, was the second-most-watched debate of the campaign season, according to Nielsen Media Research.)

Romney, for one, has attracted attention--and, let's be honest, some outright mockery--for taking exception to the user-generated format, in part because it involved questions about global warming from an animated snowman (watch video below).

In a recent YouTube video, that snowman character, who goes by the moniker Billiam, advised the former Massachusetts governor to "lighten up slightly."

"I hope you can appreciate that no one is more qualified to ask a question about global warming than a concerned snow parent," he added in an impossibly high-pitched voice.

When I first heard that CNN had partnered with YouTube for two upcoming presedential debates I was intrigued. For the first time in history, on July 23 at 4:00 p.m. (PDT), the general public will have a chance to ask a question to the man (or woman) who might become the next president of the United States.

But what does this approach really mean to the future of U.S. politics? As a recent article on CNN points out, while the questions may come from the public, the news agency is still making the choice of which questions will actually be asked. Does this approach really democratize the debates or is it simply a chance for a few lucky individuals to have a chance to be on national television? According to Joshua Levy at TechPresident.com, "There are two parts to opening up a platform like these debates to the community: 1) Let individuals participate in unprecedented ways, (and) 2) Give up control of the voting to the community."

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In a joint announcement on Thursday, YouTube and CNN unveiled their plans for co-sponsored Democratic and Republican presidential debates that aim to bring the standard televised events into the digital age of mashups, remixes and viral buzz. Not only will video content from the events (as well as other CNN debates) be made available for sharing and distribution online, but the debate questions themselves will come in the form of videos sent in by YouTube users.

(Video: YouTube's call for submissions)

In a dial-in press conference, representatives from both companies explained the new process and answered questions from reporters--on hand were Jon Klein, president of CNN U.S.; David Bohrman, CNN's senior vice president and Washington, D.C. bureau chief; Chad Hurley, YouTube's CEO and co-founder; and Steve Grove, YouTube's news and politics editor.

All four projected eager enthusiasm that this new debate format would bring a more democratic angle to the way campaign dialogue is conducted. "This is how debates would have been done since the beginning of time, had the technology been available," Klein extolled. "It's really powerful, and it really brings the country to the presidential candidates in a very visual and contextual way," added Grove.

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In a press call on Thursday morning, CNN and YouTube will unveil the details for the cable news channel's upcoming presidential debate coverage, claiming that the two are "teaming up to provide an unprecedented debate format offering voters a larger role than ever before in debate history."

The press event will feature Jon Klein, president of CNN U.S.; David Bohrman, CNN's senior vice president and Washington, D.C. bureau chief; Chad Hurley, YouTube's CEO and co-founder; and Steve Grove, YouTube's news and politics editor.

The traditional ownership format of televised presidential debate content, which allotted all rights to the network that broadcast the event, came under high-profile scrutiny this spring. A host of prominent politics and new-media figures co-signed a letter to the heads of the Democratic and Republican parties asking them to support changing that model to allow Internet users to share and "remix" the video online. Some networks responded by making content available on their Web sites, but this appears to be the first time that a news channel has partnered with a video-sharing site for this specific purpose.

Stay tuned for updates on CNN and YouTube's plan--the press event starts at 8:30 AM Pacific time.

Hillary Clinton won't be the next lonelygirl15, but there's no question that she and all the other 2008 presidential candidates will have their turns on YouTube.

The question that has been posed, CNET News.com reports, is whether the Democratic and Republican National Committees will allow video of the candidates' debates into the public domain.

"In 2008, this will really be a year of YouTube, where the little guy can hold politicians accountable for their words and that's why we need presidential debate content to be in the public domain or Creative Commons, and not captive to the whims of big media companies," said a representative for MoveOn Civic Action, whose executive director cosigned a letter to the committees encouraging distribution to the public.

But as always in politics, others said they aren't so sure it's a good idea.

"It's far from clear to me that it's a good idea to put this stuff up on YouTube and have anyone able to modify it however they choose," a senior fellow at the Progress & Freedom Foundation explained. "You know what's going to happen on both the left and the right. The stuff will be mangled, and everything will be pulled out of context, and it'll be ricocheted around the world."

Regardless of each committees' decision, one thing is certain: the parodies will be plentiful.