How many of you saw the CNN/YouTube Democratic Presidential debate last night?

Without getting into the politics of it, I thought the two hours on television (actually, a bit longer) were the best primary debate I’ve ever seen.  The questions were vibrant, refreshing, humorous, original, intense - far better than what the usual panel of politically reporting “experts” usually serves up.  And the candidates rose to the occasion with generally on-point, sharp answers.

The iPhone connection is implicit, but clearly something which will grow in the future.  The ease with which iPhone gets YouTube already makes the questions easy to see, any time, anywhere, just by clicking here.

The road to the future - the near future - is more and more people getting YouTube on iPhone rather than their computer, and more and more people watching CNN on their iPhones rather than their television or computer screens.

The electronic political revolution began with radio and FDR’s fireside chats.  All heard in the living room.  It progressed by the 1960 Presidential debate to television - now seen as well as heard - but still in the living room.

The next step, which the iPhone is clearly signaling, is the revolution received any place in the world, any time, any place.  It will be a world in which candidates will be answering to anyone willing to speak into a phone, have their voice and face recorded, and uploaded to YouTube.

We’ve come a long way from Lincoln-Douglas, whose debate was more important in history than the time it actually took place, because they were seen and heard by so few.