CNN Riggs YouTube Debate

Below is a quick visual statistical analysis of the rigged CNN/YouTube Democratic debate. The first chart was provided by the Chris Dodd campaign(Thanks!), and then I listed the number of responses each candidate got.

















NUMBER OF RESPONSES

PART 1

• Mike Gravel 1
  
• Chris Dodd: 3
• John Edwards: 5
  
• Hillary Clinton: 4
  
• Barack Obama: 6
  
• Bill Richardson: 2
  
• Joe Biden: 1
• Dennis Kucinich: 3

PART 2

• Mike Gravel: 3
  
• Chris Dodd: 3
  
• John Edwards: 3
  
• Hillary Clinton: 6
  
• Barack Obama: 4
  
• Bill Richardson: 3
  
• Joe Biden: 3
  
• Dennis Kucinich: 2

PART 3

• Mike Gravel: 4
  
• Chris Dodd: 2
  
• John Edwards: 4
  
• Hillary Clinton: 2
  
• Barack Obama: 4
  
• Bill Richardson: 2
  
• Joe Biden: 4
  
• Dennis Kucinich: 2

PART 4

• Mike Gravel: 3
  
• Chris Dodd: 4
  
• John Edwards: 4
  
• Hillary Clinton: 4
  
• Barack Obama: 6
  
• Bill Richardson: 5
  
• Joe Biden: 5
  
• Dennis Kucinich: 3

TOTAL

• Mike Gravel: 11
  
• Chris Dodd: 12
  
• John Edwards: 16
  
• Hillary Clinton: 16
  
• Barack Obama: 20
  
• Bill Richardson: 12
  
• Joe Biden: 13
  
• Dennis Kucinich: 10

Notice the number of responses don't equal to more time. There is no proportion either, and we clearly see the debate was rigged to favor Hillary, Obama, and Edwards.

Example:

Chris Dodd 12 Responses 8:39
Mike Gravel 11 Responses 4:10

PBS, Tavis Smiley Put on Democracy Clinic; No Coverage?

Even though this news is a week old I feel this is something that cannot be forgotten for a couple reasons. Last week PBS hosted a debate between the Democratic candidates for President and Tavis Smiley was the moderator. All of the questions were based on The Covenant with Black America, which is a book full of chapters about issues facing the black community. Not only did they host a debate, but what they did should not go unnoticed.

Why do I say this was a "democracy clinic"? That's because each candidate basically got the same amount of time. Unlike the MSNBC or CNN debates, this debate was fair and actually the closest thing to a real debate. Every candidate got a set amount of time, and it was actually enforced! Tavis Smiley was an absolutely brilliant moderator. I don't know a whole lot about Tavis Smiley, but how he moderated this debate was how Brian Williams or Wolf Blitzer should have moderated their debates. There were a couple times when a few of the "front runners" went over their time limit, and instead of letting them ramble on he put the hammer down. When "front runners" aren't getting special treatment and the debate is fair you will notice that results turn out to be different. That is quite evident by the "pre-forum" and "post-forum" poll results done for this debate:

The most notable statistic on that chart is Dennis Kucinich who went from 2% - 13%, and actually ends up polling higher than "front runner" Hillary Clinton!

I don't know about anyone else, but I saw little to no coverage of this debate leading into the debate and after the debate itself. If I did not have any political friends I would have never known this debate was going to take place. When the other debates were clearly skewed, and this one was actually fair I find this troubling. Thankfully PBS had the courtesy to put this debate on their website so people can watch it who missed it.

WATCH THE DEBATE HERE