If the YouTube debate taught nothing else it was that the questions and the questioners matter. So I sat down for a brief interview with each of the questioners for today's YearlyKos Presidential Forum to ask them what is uppermost in their minds as they prepare their questions. New York Times Magazine journalist Matt Bai, Daily Kos "front pager," Joan McCarter a.k.a. mcjoan, and Daily Kos diarist and Frameshop blogger, Jeffrey Feldman, play the roles as questioners that are crucial to the success of the forum. They have help from the blogosphere at large which is already sharing the credit for attracting the field of candidates that includes every Democrat except Joe Biden and Dennis Kucinich, but blame will not likely be so easily shared.
The YouTube debate was widely credited for increasing public participation but was also criticized because the public had no input into which of the thousands submissions were actually chosen for the debate. YearlyKos had an electronic submission form for written questions, but the questions are not archived and there was no process by which readers or convention goers could rate the questions (or even look at them). The job of selecting from among the more than four hundred questions that were submitted fell roughly to the group of moderators and an Advisory Board led by Gary Hart and comprised of a mix of bloggers, activists, and "traditional" politicos.
Jeffrey Feldman highlighted two criteria that were kept in mind when selecting reader questions. First, they "put a premium on forward looking questions." He said they thought it was "important to craft a conversation that didn't really dwell on the past," a concern seconded by mcjoan. Second, Mr. Feldman said he was impressed by the wide range of interests the readers had, so tried to reflect the "big principles" and "big concerns"the DailyKos readership wants addressed. He said there are some questions that are "signature" Daily Kos questions that the audience should be able to recognize as such.
Some of the readers whose questions were chosen are in attendance and will, presumably, get to ask their questions themselves. Mr. Feldman will also ask some specific questions submitted by people who could not be in attendance. The questions of many others who submitted will be represented in questions Mr. Feldman "synthesized" from large numbers of similar questions. Matt Bai analogized the process to letters to editor pages - any one letter, or question in this case, represents many others.
The bulk of the questions were composed by mcjoan and Mr. Bai. Their perspective on the process reflects their different roles, both in the debate and in the media. Mr. Bai, while in no way downplaying the event's importance, especially as an opportunity for journalists and bloggers to work together, seemed to see the questions more as probes that may "little by little reveal something" over the course of the campaign. His job as moderator is his primary concern.
mcjoan, "questioner in chief" (a title I bestowed based on Mr. Bai's stressing that, as a blogger, her questions should take priority here), wants to be sure that the questions reflect "the themes we have been talking about most often on the blog the past five years." She said that she was looking for "a more philosophical approach, a more thoughtful approach" concerning the process of governing. She does not want to get into a "laundry list of 'happening right now' issues." She's looking for ways to get candidates talking about new thinking, not just, "You voted for that."
mcjoan is also consciously adapting her approach to the "high information audience" that is represented in the room of more than a thousand active members of the blogosphere. She will go with her strengths and interests, most notably the Iraq war beat she covers as a front pager at Daily Kos, to try to get the candidates "out of the talking points they are used to," a job she acknowledges is a big challenge. Mr. Bai shares that goal, analogizing the candidates' messaging to a rutted road - the candidates want to drive the rhetoric along the tracks that are already there. "Their number one prime directive is to steer those wheels into the ruts . . . your job as a questioner is to keep them out of the ruts," he said.
When he's not directing talking point traffic, Mr. Bai will be busy trying to satisfy all of the competing interests that vie for prominence in the ninety minute format. His job was to put together the whole program of questions which he said is "like doing the seating for a state dinner." No issue, candidate or questioner wants to feel like they were paid insufficient attention.
When I asked him what, from his experience watching and covering debates, he wanted to improve, Mr. Bai said, "The thing that frustrates me watching debates is the people aren't forced to really answer the questions." He said he would try to avoid asking questions in a way that gave the candidate several options. He also hopes to "make them answer the questions they have spent the whole campaign trying not to answer . . .questions they have spent the campaign trying to nuance." He also hopes to cover foreign policy ground that, because of the focus on Iraq, has not been probed in as much depth in previous debates.
Mr. Feldman, mcjoan and Mr. Bai are all reminding themselves and one another to listen carefully to the answers and to not get distracted by the setting and the format. The follow up questions that capitalize on what the candidates say in answer to a provocative question are opportunities that are easy to miss in the glare of the lights, the audience reaction, and the need to coordinate and time the event. The stakes for the candidates are high, but for the bloggers and the journalist moderator, having the questioning process in your hands in a room of fourteen hundred bloggers, much less a television audience, is a special challenge.
Following the YouTube act adds another dimension of scrutiny to the questioners and their question selection process. YearlyKos and millions more will have the answers to any questions about the questions (and candidates' answers to the questions if the panel is successful) later today.