Third party candidates stage own Internet debate, run into technical glitches along the way

Running for president of the United States isn’t easy. Just ask Rick Perry. Presidential debates aren’t easy, either — just ask Barack Obama. Even for a candidate overflowing with campaign funds, the wheels can still come off the wagon at the last minute, and presidential dreams can fade faster than Vanilla Ice’s career.
So what can an under-funded but passionate candidate do, after being excluded from the nationally televised presidential debates? Why, harness the power of the Internet, of course. Why have a town hall, when you can have a “Virtual Town Hall?”
Anyone can hold a Google “Hangout” with a huge audience, courtesy of social networking technology from Google. Anyone, anywhere, can join in. They don’t even need a computer — a typical smartphone will do.

On Thursday night, that’s exactly what happened. Green Party candidate Jill Stein in Seattle Washington and former New Mexico Gov. Gary Johnson in Laramie, Wyoming went head to head, live on the internet, to fight for America’s votes.
…or, at least, that was the plan.
The results were somewhat different. The debate lasted an hour. Questions were supplied by participants, minus any sickly sweet Candy [Crowley] Land spin. Energy policy, foreign policy and the role of government in the economy were all on the menu.
To say the debate encountered “some” technical difficulties would be like saying that Apple has sold “some” iPhones. Johnson kept disappearing from the Hangout like a Muggle at Hogwarts who has yet to figure out which end of his wand is the one that makes stuff vanish. If ever there was a case to be made for blanketing the nation in high speed internet, Gary Johnson made it last night.

Read more: http://dailycaller.com/2012/10/20/analysis-third-party-candidates-stage-own-internet-debate-run-into-technical-glitches-along-the-way/#ixzz29pxiY0nX