Online Presidential Debate????????????

Lots of question marks, because this seems so bent that it make Fox look middle of the road.

Here's news guaranteed to tickle anyone who, like me, is both a geek and a presidential-campaign junkie: Yahoo, Slate, and the Huffington Post have announced that they're going to cohost the first-ever online presidential debates during the 2008 campaign. There will be one for Democratic candidates and one for the Republicans, and both will be hosted by Mr. Charlie Rose.

The press release doesn't have a lot of detail, other than that the debates will be held after Labor Day of this year, and that the Democratic one will have opening remarks by DNC Chairman Howard Dean. So I have a few questions. Such as....

The Puffington Host? Yahoo? Well, at least slate is somewhere closer to the center. I wonder who chooses the questions. The article asks several other questions, but I'm pretty amazed that this is being slated as anything be exceptionally warped. The Dems will probably get a fair debate, but the sponsors have no reason not to distort the Repubs out or all reality, so why would they choose to participate?

Read Arianna Puffington's statement:

“With presidential candidates announcing online and with campaign ads and fundraising increasingly online, presidential campaigns are moving to the Internet at breakneck speed. Online debates are the inevitable next step,” said Arianna Huffington, co-founder and editor-in-chief of The Huffington Post. “We are thrilled to be joining with Internet pioneers Yahoo! and Slate to host the first online presidential debates, and to have Charlie Rose as our moderator. These debates represent a further merging of new media technology and politics, and are a great opportunity to bring more people into the political process, and engage the new generation of young voters who spend so much of their time – and get so much of their information – online.”

I'd be less skeptical if Glen Reynolds or one of his genre of Bloggers was participating, but this is far to suspiciously bent left. With the Dems boycotting anything that is co-sponsored by Fox, can this actually be seen as a advantageous debate for the Rebubs?