The YouTube Democratic debate analysis is in! I analyzed the candidates’ ability to give a straight answer to each question during the debate. The goal is the same as it was when I analyzed the Republican candidates in their third debate and the Democrats in their second and third debates. I don’t evaluate the merits of the candidates’ answers because that’s for you to decide.

I watched the debate this time instead of just reviewing the transcript. I broke down the candidate’s responses into five categories and valued them accordingly:

• 4 points = clearly answered a direct question
• 3 points = clearly answered a question posed to another candidate
• 2 points = gave an empty answer to a direct question by discussing the subject without actually answering the question
• 1 point = gave an empty answer to a question posed to another candidate
• 0 points = Didn’t address the question subject at all

I also didn’t give any points for clearly taking a position on a question that nobody asked.

The Straight Talk Award for being the one most likely to give a clear answer to a question goes to…

1. Mike Gravel(80% likely)
2. Chris Dodd (75%)
3. Bill Richardson & Dennis Kucinich (tie 73%)
4. John Edwards & Joe Biden (69%)
5. Barack Obama (60%)
6. Hillary Clinton (53%)

Mike Gravel claimed his straight talk crown for a second time after a very evasive performance last time. Everybody was much more direct this time compared to the previous debate. Dennis Kucinich seems to have finally figured out that he needs to speak to the question asked and not just to his talking points and so ended up scoring much better than he had in the previous two debates. His fixation with getting people to text the word “peace” though made me start to feel like I was watching an American Idol episode.

The DC Shuffle Award for the THIRD time in a row goes to Hillary Clinton. This award is for the candidate most likely to give an evasive answer as measured by the number of times a question was either avoided or was given an empty, hollow answer. She has established herself now as the most consistently slippery and evasive Democratic candidate. The silver lining for Clinton is that this is the first time her likelihood of giving a clear answer was over 50%. In other words, prior to this debate, she would be evasive more often than not.

The Penn & Teller Award goes to the one who is most likely to give the illusion of answering a question without actually doing so. I call them empty or hollow answers. And the winner is:

1. Barack Obama (40% likely)
2. Hillary Clinton (35%)
3. John Edwards (31%)

The Buck Stops Here Award for never avoiding a question goes to Barack Obama, John Edwards, & Mike Gravel. Only one person avoided giving an answer more than once- Hillary Clinton. There were only two questions that anybody avoided:

• How many family members do you have serving in the military?
• Is it true that Democrats are putting politics over conscience out of fear they will be blamed for the loss of the Iraq war?

The Put Up or Shut Up Award for never giving an empty answer went unclaimed again.

The Moderator’s Pet Award for being asked the most questions goes to:

1. Barack Obama (19 questions)
2. Hillary Clinton (17)
3. John Edwards (15)
4. Richardson, Biden, & Dodd (13)
5. Dennis Kucinich (11)
6. Mike Gravel (10)

Mike Gravel has now had to sit through two debates to answer the same number of questions Clinton or Obama received in one debate. It is clear CNN has favored the financial front runners in both of their debates by directing the most questions, and therefore airtime, to Obama, Clinton, and Edwards. Kucinich and Gravel have been largely left to warm the benches in both debates CNN moderated. In the PBS debate, all the candidates received the same number of questions and the opportunity to answer each one presented. They all had the same amount of airtime.

Chris Dodd’s campaign is keenly aware of this inequity of airtime and produces a talk clock on their website to track the amount of candidate airtime in each debate.

I find the inequity of airtime disturbing. Obama had almost 400% more airtime than Gravel. That is largely a result of Gravel getting half the questions which he then compounds further by being more likely to give direct answers.

Despite his lack of face time with the camera, Mike Gravel had the most memorable moment on the stage. Gravel became emphatic while reiterating his previous statement that American soldiers in Vietnam died in vain. A visibly angry Gravel reinforced his point further.

Only one thing worse than a soldier dying in vain, it’s more soldiers dying in vain.

Anderson Cooper did a reasonable job of moderating. He was especially good at keeping the candidates focused on the actual question. He did start to rush through questions in the last 30 minutes or so as if he had some sort of quota to meet. This led to some extremely important questions getting very short shrift.

• Only one candidate was asked how they’d standardize voting forms or practices to help maintain vote integrity in national elections.
• Only two candidates were asked about taxes.
• Only three candidates were asked how they’d keep social security solvent.

Given the huge impact these three issues have on the nation, I was disappointed to see Cooper in a rush to move on to softball questions like “What does ‘liberty’ and ‘in God we trust’ mean to you?” and ” Look at the candidate to your left and say one thing you like and one thing you don’t about them.” I don’t think more than a handful of people care about such fluff but I’m sure they all care about their taxes, their social security benefits, and their vote. Anderson, don’t let the format style overwhelm the substance.
If you want to know more about any of the candidates, their websites are here.

The analysis metrics for this debate are here.