• by Mark Walsh  @markfwal, November 1, 2007

Yahoo’s Presidential Mashup Debate wound up being neither a mashup nor a debate. (Discuss.) With its “first-ever online-only presidential candidate mashup,” Yahoo appeared poised to leapfrog the CNN/YouTube debate in advancing online political participation.

The format involved 15-minute interviews by Charlie Rose — via satellite — with the Democratic candidates. The issues were chosen through an online poll of Yahoo users. Comedian Bill Maher also asked the candidates a “wild-card” question.

Viewers were able to select which candidates they wanted to hear from on which topics via Yahoo. During the first 10 days, the mashup debate drew 1.1 million viewers, with Maher’s video segments proving the most popular.

But Yahoo and debate co-hosts, The Huffington Post and Slate, were ripped in the blogosphere for limiting user participation. “Where’s the interactivity?” asked BuzzMachine’s Jeff Jarvis. “It’s like a bad children’s museum: ‘Here, children, push this button. You won’t do any harm.’ ”

NewTeeVee’s Chris Albrecht noted: “The video from the debate will still be made available, but if you want to do a Hillary-1984-esque mashup, then by God you’re going to have to work for it.”