So tomorrow night at 7:00 POLITICS AS WE KNOW IT WILL BE REVOLUTIONIZED. Seriously politicians will answer the questions they have always ignored, will stop reading from speeches and get to the heart and soul of the nation’s deepest thoughts and feelings and the Internet will take over politics and solve all the worlds problems. Why? Because a bunch of people sitting in their living rooms will ask candidates questions through a Web cam which they submitted months before and have already been screened by the campaigns press offices. Watch out MSM (that is Main Stream Media for you non-tech-Web-2.0 people) because this debate will be brought to you by, well, CNN, which is part of the MSM. Wait what?

OK this thing won’t revolutionize politics, it probably won’t even be interesting television, but it has given all the Web sites and CNN itself endless chatter and chances to promote so it is good. Here is what I think you can expect from the debate(s) and why.

First up, more of the same.
What possesses people to believe that having questions submitted online will suddenly change the debate, reframe the issues or get candidates to leave their pre-prepared remarks is beyond me. I don’t understand it, I don’t accept it, I believe tomorrow night and every night for the remainder of the election my position will be vindicated. Why?

Because I have seen a good chunk of the vides submitted and they are a mix of the exact same questions being asked of these candidates already with a pinch of crazy and a side of vapid nonsense and self promotion.

Second up, lots of promotion.
For the next twenty-four hours CNN is going to push this debate like its the holy grail. Show after show will tease it, prognosticator after prognosticator will tell us how it is “revolutionizing politics” and “bloggers” will be interviewed on the network so that they can get on their blogs and shout “watch CNN, watch CNN”. Then the debate will start and everyone will be disappointed because it is the same group of people we’ve seen before will answer the questions the same way they did before.

Seriously during the last two debates CNN couldn’t get the microphones working. We’ve had lightning rods almost as long as we’ve had this country and yet lightning continually ruined the show. How in the world are they going to manage to revolutionize politics through the Internet when the network can barely keep the lights on?

Third, if you still doubt politicians won’t change.
These YouTube videos were submitted over the last few months. Even if they throw in a curveball or two all of these campaigns have been preparing canned answers for these questions for ages. Meanwhile do you really think CNN is going to throw a stripper on asking something crazy out of left field? No. The most challenging question will be about Darfur or something and then things will move back into normal territory.

Fourth, the endless ‘thank you’s’.
Be prepared to hear Hillary & Obama & Dodd & the rest endlessly ‘thank’ the submitters for their questions and then comment on how ‘great it is to have a forum like this where honest people can submit blah blah blah’.

Fifth, have you seen the Internet?
Most average Americans barely vote. Politics occupies such a small amount of their brain space it barely registers. The Internet is a wonderful representation of just how little people are concerned with politics or substance.

Right now the most important political videos on YouTube involve scantily clad women, Rudy Giuliani in a dress & John Edwards combing his hair. Those are the political messages that have reached up from the grassroots and made it into the publics consciousness.

Finally my tips for reaching the real Internet and the American people.
Put Jessica Alba or Paris Hilton in the debate. Guaranteed largest viewer-ship ever for CNN & if you add a cat and a dog fighting on stage next to them you will reach the entire Internet audience.

Sorry to be a cynic but come Tuesday we will see who is right.