A great way to meet the candidates...

The CNN YouTube debates premiered the other night. If you missed the broadcast like I did you can catch it here. Be forewarned, YouTube has done a great job of clipping/posting the candidates' responses in an efficient manner, which makes these videos really hard to stop watching. I'm currently on question 27 of 38.

I'm not well versed in politics and I don't know these candidates as intimately as I'd like to but after hearing their thoughts on the issues presented; many of my preconceived notions have been washed. Clinton and Kucinich respectively came off as more capable and intelligent than I had previously given them credit to be. Obama's rhetoric got him through the debate as I've heard it often does and will probably continue to do so. On one hand I find myself wishing he'd do a bit more to really put himself out there because I'm weary about giving my vote to a first-term senator. In addition, I don't know if his rhetoric is a product of practice or if it's inherent to his intellectual capacity which was shaped by a Harvard education and authored numerous books/memoirs; hopefully the latter. But for me, as an un-informed viewer meeting most of these candidates for the first time through this debate; I have to give kudos to Edwards whom I felt championed the night by humanizing himself intelligently on numerous occasions.

If you get a chance to sit down and watch any or all of these clips I think you'd agree that a few senators in particular (Clinton, Obama, Edwards and Kucinich) are clearly getting more camera time than others, which could be frustrating for those of you more interested in what the other candidates might have to say, especially supporters for Senator Gravel... whom honest-to-goodness, outright scares me!