The first YouTube/CNN Debate opened with a video of a thin, white man wearing a soul patch and a baseball cap. He sat at a small table at his home in Portland, Oregon with his hands clasped in front of him. There was a tattoo peaking from under his sleeve, and another on the underside of his wrist. He wore two small earings. His voice was slightly effeminate. And then, using what could possibly be the first ironic air quotes in presidential debate history, he asked the candidates to please, do something "revolutionary" and answer questions directly instead of beating around the "bush." Then he leaned toward the screen and cut his webcam off.

Cut to Anderson Cooper, brow handsomely furrowed: "We have no idea if this going to work."

But it did work, albeit fitfully. The videos that followed were at turns funny, personal, and esoteric -- an unpredictability that mimicked a casual browse through YouTube itself. Rob Porter from Irvine, CA wanted to know Hillary's definition of liberal. Will from Massachusetts asked about reparations for slavery. Two lesbians from Brooklyn wanted to know if they would be allowed to be married. This was the YouTube agora.

I admit: I was pleasantly surprised at how well the debate went. Even though the candidates seemed more wooden than usual for much of the evening, possibly due to their unfamiliarity with the format. If I was handing out awards for the show -- and yes, at this stage, with this many candidates, it's a show -- I'd have to give Joe Biden the award for best spontaneous dickery for saying Red State Update offends Tennessee folk, and for labeling one gun-toting citizen as "mentally unbalanced."

At one point Barack Obama noticed that almost every question reflected cynicism. Ya think? That right there is the most important YouTube contribution: Demonstrating the anger seething in America.

If there was anything off-putting about the debate, it was that CNN chose to showcase one campaign video from each candidate. Cooper referred to these as "YouTube-style" videos, as if YouTube merely represented an aesthetic. I'm not watching a debate to see advertisements, CNN. And while including them in the debate format gives a nod to the way YouTube has changed political media, it also confuses style with substance. An advertisement has no place in a debate. Next time: No more adverts.

* p.s. Here's the transcript from the debate. PoliticsTV has a good series of candidate response videos, while the NYTimes' Caucus blog embeds the YouTube question videos.