Will the GOP Bail on the YouTube Debate?

The other day I posted on the questions that came up during the Dems YouTube debate. Some were pretty good, and probably better than you'd hear from the mainstream media, but some were clearly stupid. Patrick Ruffini, posting at HughHewitt.com, tells us that after watching the mess on CNN and especially some of the the stupid videos that CNN chose, the GOP may bail out of that debate in much the same way the Dems cancelled on the Fox debates:

Over the last few hours, I'd been hearing buzz that GOP candidates were going wobbly on the CNN/YouTube debate. I was dismissive. Given the huge earned media hit the Democrats got this week, the fact that even the highly partisan questioners acquitted themselves better than Chris Matthews did in the first debate, and the sponsorship of the powerful Republican Party of Florida, I didn't think the GOP candidates would make the political mistake of passing up it up.

I was apparently wrong. Rudy Giuliani is unlikely to participate, according to an official source.

And Mitt Romney wouldn't commit, dissing the "snowman question."

***Mitt Romney didn't like some of the more frivolous trappings and told the New Hampshire Union Leader that "I think the presidency ought to be held at a higher level than having to answer questions from a snowman." ***

I would now expect numerous candidates to bail, just like they did at Ames, citing the lack of a frontrunner.

This is a big mistake. The Democrats are afraid to answer questions from Big Bad Fox News Anchors, and the Republicans are afraid to answer questions from regular people. Which is worse?

I would have to agree with Patrick on this one. The fact that there were some stupid videos used in the debate was the fault of CNN and no one else. Given that they received thousands of video questions, there's no doubt that the same global warming question posed by the snowman was probably asked in a more serious video by someone else...they just chose not to use it.

CNN is putting on a show and trying to get ratings, and hopefully they learned a thing or two from this format. I'd like to think the next one would have a little less frivolity, and I would hate to see the GOP give the net-savvy young voters the impression that they don't care what they think.

UPDATE: Skipping the YouTube debate won't help the Republicans with this: Republican Support Collapses Among Youth