John Edwards appeared today on an MTV-MySpace interactive “Presidential Dialogue.” Viewers were able to immediately grade the candidate’s answers — either positively: “Good Ideas,” “Understands Reality,” “Answered Question;” or negatively: “Wrong Ideas,” “Out of Touch,” “Dodged Question.” The aggregate responses were displayed in a pie chart that understandably confused Edwards at first.

In this clip Edwards is asked how he’d pay for his “College for Everyone” program. Why, that’s as easy as Finance 101: He’d “get rid of banks as the intermediary in student loans,” and he’d collect taxes that aren’t currently being paid, particularly taxes on capital gains that those rich folks are avoiding.

Next up: A discussion of his “Straight A’s for Everyone” plan.