“Tonight is something of an experiment,” said media darling Anderson Cooper, veteran of ChannelOne’s experimental citizen journalism, as he presented the opening remarks at last night’s CNN/YouTube debate. The event—in which eight Democratic presidential candidates answered questions selected among 3000 videos submitted by YouTube users—was definitely more “something of” than full-on “experiment” because CNN selected the questions. How much better, or at least different, it would have been if, say, YouTube users voted on the questions the candidates had to answer and CNN’s Cooper got out of the way and just enjoyed the spectacle. YouTube, as its users know, is crazy and silly and totally on by being slightly off most of the time, which you would think the organizers of this dog-and-pony show would have figured out and capitalized upon. But no: in politics and news it’s still all about control and so there wasn’t as much air in the YouTube Monday night as there should have been.

Well, we watched the debate— a group of real-life twentysomething YouTube users— and took random notes on the “experiment” for anyone who’s interested.

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Seven minutes before the debate rerun airs (the original ran live at 4 p.m. PST), we turn on the DVR and tune into a prerecorded version. (We don’t watch anything with commercials, okay! We haven’t actually watched a commercial in months and plan to never unintentionally watch one again.) Rules to a potential debate drinking game bounce around the room:

1) Candidate puffs feathers and boasts about experience in or out of Washington? Take a sip.

2) Points blame at the Republicans for the “failed” war in Iraq? Take two.

3) Mentions an “ordinary American” by name? Finish your drink.

We can’t help but notice how much Hillary’s coral embossed jacket pops out against the bland suits of her male counterparts. Her eye shadow even matches her blouse!

A YouTuber from Groton, MA asks Kucinich why America would be better off with him as president rather than frontrunners Clinton or Obama. Kucinich launches into a lengthy oration on his experience in the military. There’s no damn way the time limit here is actually 30 seconds.

“He’s full of Bullshit,” Jon quips.

Others are distracted by Kucinich’s, ahem, youthful appearance…

“Has he had botox?” asks Derek. “He’s definitely had botox.”

The follow-up points the finger at the other Dems for funding the Iraq debacle.

Obama and Clinton respond by spewing sound bytes on lobbyist money and leadership experience. Whew, finally we have candidates who are on top of that “corruption of the system through lobbying” business!

Derek: “What was the question? There was no question. He said, you funded the war, I didn’t!”

The pizza comes. Everyone digs in. Gabbing continues despite breadstick-stuffed mouths.

Obama counters a question on paying African-Americans repatriations for slavery with a soliloquy on funding schools.

“Man, I wish we had some ranch,” Jessica muses, grabbing another slice of pizza.

Someone asks a question about whether Katrina-victim response would have been different if the storm had hit a “cosmopolitan city instead of a poor urban dwelling.” Sitting a few freeway exits from the posh Hollywood Hills doesn’t give anyone in the room much comfort as we contemplate the response to an LA natural disaster.

“What would happen to all the illegal immigrants here in the event of an earthquake?” Jon wonders. “FEMA would be all over helping them out.”

Edward takes a question on using religious views to back policy decisions, finally giving a direct answer after a follow-up from Anderson. The Reverend who posted the question is coincidentally in the audience… We can’t help but be reminded that Newsweek is calling for comparisons between Edwards the anti-poverty crusader and Bobby Kennedy this week. He ain’t no Kennedy. But there is a spark in his baby blues.

The pizza is gone.

Edwards agrees with Clinton on her policy for meeting with leaders of Syria, Iran, Venezuela and Cuba. Are these two playing footsies? We smell the beginnings of a VP nod… but who will be nodding whom?

Someone asks a question on teaching sex education in schools. Derek gets excited. “Oh, I like this question—It’s kind of dirty!”

No one has said any variation on the word terror yet.

Bentley: “Do you think Bush is watching this?”

Derek: “No, Bush doesn’t read the newspaper! He still hasn’t figured out how to use the ‘internets.’”

A question comes from a snarky snowman, who asks the candidates how they can help the fate of his snowy son, who he fears will melt away as the mercury creeps up. Everyone cracks up. At last it feels like YouTube.

Anderson asks for a show of hands (shockingly, his first of the night!) to see which candidates flew a private or chartered jet to the debate— apparently the true test in celebrityland of environmental commitment. Richardson hesitates awkwardly, making sure the others raise their hands before admitting his excessive carbon emissions. Gravel, always the contrarian, says he took the train and that “maybe one of them can give me a ride sometime.”

“If he took the train, he was one of the crazy guys sitting in the back,” says Jon.

The issue of nuclear power and other forms of non-carbon-based energy is raised. Clinton takes the opportunity to give props to Edwards on his ideas… coupling rumors fill the room again.

Another YouTuber asks a question about more years of Clinton or Bush in Washington. Clinton commends her hubby’s accomplishments and the diversity of the group at hand. Gravel grabs the reigns and dives into a heated rant on Wall Street campaign donations.

“We should drink whenever he says something crazy,” suggests Jon, though everyone agrees that Gravel gets major points for his honesty and passion.

With seven minutes left, our screen goes blank… It seems the DVR ran out after nearly two hours. Technology has failed us!

Everyone agrees with Jessica that it was “def more fun to watch the YouTube debate.” Derek says he thinks the ouTube experiment probably got more people involved. Jessica pipes up to point out the personalization of both the questions and the answers, “All of it was, ‘My son…my baby…’” she said.

Someone brings up the obvious imbalance of facetime (or at least voicetime) among the candidates, with frontrunners Clinton, Edwards and Obama (conveniently positioned front and center, with Gravel and Kucinich on the far outskirts of the group) stealing the spotlight. Though everyone agrees it’s sometimes the supposed underdogs who spice up the debate with their less-manicured responses (and hair!). Bentley thinks the imbalance will be beneficial when the primary results are in and the candidate is chosen.

“You need to know more about them because, in reality, on a practical level, you need to hear what they have to say.”

So there you go. We watched the debate instead of going to a bar. Yay YouTube.