Eight Republican presidential hopefuls are preparing for a challenge unlike anything they've faced as they step onto the stage for their party's first CNN/YouTube debate Wednesday in St. Petersburg, Florida. The Republican hopefuls will face off Wednesday in a CNN/YouTube debate, just as Democrats did in July.
The candidates will be fielding video questions submitted by the public via the YouTube Web site, just as Democratic White House candidates did in July. CNN's political team has viewed nearly 5,000 videos for the GOP debate -- about 2,000 more than they saw for the Democrats' debate.
The issues on the minds of the YouTube voters in this debate, to be televised on CNN at 8 p.m. ET, are vastly different from what came in for the Democrats, said Sam Feist, CNN's political director. The topics that came up most often for the GOP debate included immigration, conservative values, economic issues and taxes, according to David Bohrman, Washington bureau chief and senior vice president for CNN.
While CNN producers won't say which 40 or so questions are going to make the cut, viewers can expect to see divisive questions, controversial questions, and questions that will set the candidates apart. "This debate is to let Republican voters pick from among their eight candidates," Bohrman said. "We are trying to focus mostly on questions where there are differences among these candidates." |