Well, my Republican father would be proud: We made it onto Rush in his riff/rant on the YouTube debate (it’s a Democratic conspiracy, don’t you know):

RUSH: Now, there’s a former TV critic out there. I think this guy used to write for USA Today. [TV Guide, People, and Entertainment Weekly, actually - Ed.] His name is Jeff Jarvis and he’s got a website named BuzzMachine.com and he’s not happy with the way CNN is handles these YouTube videos. He’s among many who have criticized CNN for retaining control over which videos are shown, as opposed to showing the ones that viewers watch the most or rate as the best.

Now, two thoughts about that. Number one: it would be tempting — if I ran CNN, I would certainly let the public choose which ones to use. If I ran CNN and did this show, what I would suggest is this. I would suggest, as the president of CNN, “Absolutely right! We’re going to let the audience vote on their favorite YouTube questions for these candidates in the debate tonight, and then we’re going to air those,” and then I would come on this show, and I would tell everybody, “Pick the most ridiculous, stupid, out of the world questions you can.” That’s why CNN cannot lose control over this. Above all else, this is a show. CNN is in this for ratings. They’re not going to turn over the all-important questions to these candidates to a bunch of dingbats who don’t know what they’re doing. The idea is that it should be voted on by the public in this kind of forum.

Fellow dingbats, I take exception to that, don’t you?

It’s tempting. It would be laughable. It would be funny to see how the candidates deal with this. As a broadcasting proposition, it would be silly. Jarvis says, “It’s our democracy, not yours, CNN. There is need for order but not control. I know some of these questions might be real turkeys but it would also show that people really care and that democracy is in good hands.” It might not accomplish that. It might scare people, what is out there.

Now, the LA Times has a piece on this CNN YouTube debate, too, and here’s a submission from a guy in Las Vegas speaking to the camera on a homemade video on YouTube. “Has your husband, Bill Clinton, engaged in adulterous behavior since he left office?” That question will not air. Do you think the public would elect and vote that question near the top for the debate tonight? They probably would. It’s a real crapshoot here for this kind of thing.

But the bottom line is, you know what this really is? This is just the Democrats and their accomplices in the media salivating over what they think is the newest route to getting the youth vote. They have had all these massive voter registration drives in the past three or four elections, Rock the Vote on MTV, all of these things, and they have been so filled with promise, such excitement, that young people, the youth of America would leave wherever they were — watching MTV, whatever — and drag themselves on down to the polling place and vote for Democrats and it’s just hasn’t happened because the youthful people just don’t show up in as great numbers as older demographics. The YouTube business is nothing more than the latest attempt by the Democrats and the media to extend the youth vote to the Democrat Party. Think of this as the 2007 version of Rock the Vote.