• CNET News.com, Tuesday, July 24, 2007 11:01 AM

The so-called YouTube election firmly stamped its place in history Monday night as Democratic presidential hopefuls answered users' questions in the first YouTube Video Debate, moderated by CNN's Anderson Cooper. Many reports say that the biggest winner last night was the Internet; CNET in particular said "the video questions posed in Monday's Democratic debate were more personal and more direct than the circumlocutions that political journalists tend to prefer..."

Which isn't to say the politicians' answers were any better than usual: Each of the candidates managed to issue sweeping pronouncements without answering questions they either had no answer for, or did not want to answer. The best example was when one 26-year-old Army veteran asked the candidates how many family members they had serving in uniform. Only Senator Christopher Dodd (D-Connecticut) answered that one squarely; "Unfortunately," said CNET, "CNN moderator Anderson Cooper only infrequently pressed the candidates for a direct answer."

Next time, there may be an "American Idol"-esque voting competition to pick the best moderator-of-the-people.

Read the whole story at CNET News.com »