• by Gavin O'Malley  @mp_gavin, July 23, 2007

CNN and YouTube tonight are scheduled to hold the first of two Presidential debates driven entirely by questions submitted through the video-sharing site.

Tonight's debate for Democratic candidates starts at 7 p.m. Eastern time and is scheduled to run two hours. The second, slated for Sept. 17, is for the Republicans. Each will be moderated by CNN anchor Anderson Cooper, and will likely address between 20 and 30 questions.

The debate, to be broadcast live on CNN, will feature massive video projectors streaming queries submitted during the past few weeks by voters through YouTube. Plugging YouTube's parent company, video queries will be preceded by Google Earth maps showing the questioner's geographical location.

CNN anticipated that some 2,000 questions would come in before submissions closed Sunday. Leading up to the debate, CNN has been promoting the event by airing YouTube clips of real citizens and their questions.

The economy and health care were dominant topics among the video questions highlighted by YouTube on Sunday night. They included: What will you do to stop predatory lending practices in poor neighborhoods? What will you do to make sure veterans get better health care? How are you going to make health care affordable? How do each of you plan to address chronic disease? What are you going to do about the value of a dollar?

YouTube earlier this year launched its You Choose '08 Web page, which brings together the individual video channels created by U.S. presidential hopefuls--including Barack Obama, Hillary Clinton, Rudy Giuliani and John McCain.

Candidates can post videos addressing particular issues, while users can submit videos and written comments for possible posting.

Similarly, MySpace is hosting candidates' profiles and an online voter registration drive, and plans to host a general Presidential vote on Jan. 1 and 2 of next year.