This generation is going to be remembered for changing the face and sound of politics… online.
User driven media is giving us and so many other young people (and web savvy older ones) an outlet to raise our voices, collaborate, organize, share ideas, and raise awareness about the things we care about. The fact that You Tube drove last night’s debate should be a silencer to all of the haters who insist that their antiquated anti-tech notions are valid. The internet and online organizing can make real positive change on and off the ground. Dig it.

What did my girls think about last night’s “You Tube” debates? I LOVED the following quotes:

Yes, I’m even shouting out REP. DENNIS KUCINICH (who i finally forgive for being a former anti-choicer because he really is right on these days): We achieve strength through peace. That’s the new doctrine that I’m going to promote throughout this campaign; that we’ll use the science of human relations and diplomacy; that we pursue an approach which says that you can use international agreements and treaties; and that you can work to settle your differences without committing the young men and women to war, unless it’s absolutely necessary.

SEN. HILLARY CLINTON: Well, I think the Democrats are united, as Davis said, and we are united for change. We cannot take another four or eight years of Republican leadership that has been so disastrous for our country.

SEN OBAMA: Look, I don’t think this is just a Republican problem. I think this is a problem that spans the parties. And we don’t just need a change in political parties in Washington. We’ve got to have a change in attitudes of those who are representing the people, America. And part of the reason I don’t take PAC money, I don’t take federal lobbyists’ money is because we’ve got to get the national interests up front as opposed to the special interests.

SEN. EDWARDS (even though his answer on reparations was more typical of what I’d expect from a white southern good old boy politician… this answer was good.): I think the people who are powerful in Washington — big insurance companies, big drug companies, big oil companies — they are not going to negotiate. They are not going to give away their power. The only way that they are going to give away their power is if we take it away from them.

His answer on the reparations question should have been more like this:
OBAMA: We’ve got to understand that there are corridors of shame all across the country. And if we make the investments and understand that those are our children, that’s the kind of reparations that are really going to make a difference in America right now.
and this
KUCINICH: I am.

The Bible says we shall be and must be repairers of the breach. And a breach has occurred.

We have to acknowledge that. It’s a breach that has resulted in inequality in opportunities for education, for health care, for housing, for employment. And so, we must be mindful of that.

But it’s also a breach that has affected a lot of poor whites as well. (YAY Kucinich for touching on class, the oft ignored but most reoccuring and constant inequality in this country…)

and my other two favorite answers from Hillary and Obama:

This question is meant for Senator Obama and Senator Clinton.

Whenever I read an editorial about one of you, the author never fails to mention the issue of race or gender, respectively. Either one is not authentically black enough, or the other is not satisfactorily feminine.

How will you address these critics and their charges if one or both of you should end up on the Democratic ticket in ‘08?
(LAUGHTER)

OBAMA: Well…

COOPER: Not my question; Jordan’s question.

OBAMA: You know, when I’m catching a cab in Manhattan — in the past, I think I’ve given my credentials.

CLINTON: Well, I couldn’t run as anything other than a woman.

Last night’s debates moved my top picks away from Obama, Clinton, and Edwards because of his answer about race. I’m going to have to accept it despite my love for Edwards that Kucinich is actually more where I think our country should be progressing and I’m moving him to my top three even though he kind of reminds me of a hobbit. “)