Live! This Saturday! At the Colosseum! Hillary vs. Obama vs. Ron vs. Huckabee! That's right, a four-way cage match for the White House! The ticket buys you the whole seat, but you'll only need the edge!
MTV and MySpace are collaborating this Saturday to put on what has to be the most interesting debate since the YouTube-CNN debates. In something generally unprecedented at this stage in a presidential campaign, candidates from both sides of the aisle will join each other in a debate to be covered as part of the MySpace/MTV Presidential Dialogue Series.
This bizarre event will take place live this Saturday at 6 PM Eastern Time, broadcast via radio, online and mobile. The Associated Press will be running the live video feed online. The debate will also be broadcast live on MTV, MTV2, MTV Tr3s and on mtvU, as well as also being streamed via MySpaceTV.
As if it weren't being broadcast enough places, it'll be on XM Radio, and translated to Spanish and broadcast on ImpreMedia's LaVibra and shown on the MTV screen in Times Square.
It's clear that this event is going to have an impact, and it'll be truly surprising if this isn't one of the more closely watched political events of the season. Interestingly enough, even though they were invited, McCain and Romney have yet to indicate their participation in the event, and are considered unlikely to join in, as they as the frontrunners theoretically have the most to lose by contributing to such an experimental forum at this point in the primary.
It is certainly clear why MySpace and MTV are putting the event on - this is clearly going to be an event of Ringling proportions, and without a doubt quite entertaining. Ron Paul and Huckabee have little to lose at this point in the race, so their voluntary involvement is understandable at this point.
Obama and Hillary's involvement is a bit puzzling, though. The only character on the Republican side who would be likely not to be highly critical of what conservatives consider to be almost socialist policies of the Democrat front-runners, an image that certainly can't be beneficial to the Democrats.
My initial thoughts are to write off the whole event as a media circus - it would certainly be more useful if all candidates participated. Still, if it is a successful forum event, having this type of debate take place more regularly in presidential politics could act significantly as a disruptive force from the normal image reshaping that happens in the US primary elections versus the general elections.