Yellow Elephants?

In a way, I hope you all didn't watch the CNN/YouTube debates last night because, well... the questions were fresh but the answers were canned and you were unlikely to have learned anything about the plethora of Democrats that you didn't already know.

But, kudos to the Democrats for joining this debate first. Every candidate showed up for what was a new, though moderated to the point that it wasn't so new, format. At least they showed up.

At this point, on the Republican side, only John McCain (of the ailing campaign) and Ron Paul (brave extremist to them all) is willing to show up for the Republican version.

They've already seen the Democratic version of the debate. They should have noticed that, for the most part, the candidates were able to use previously tested answers to the moderated Youtube questions and so they should have noticed that this debate format is no threat to anybody. Hell, look at the aftermath: Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama went into that debate as front-runners and they emerged as front-runners without ever straying from previous talking points. In this "new" debate format, nothing changed. I used scare quotes around the word "new" because this is the same as an old fashioned "Town Hall" style debate. I used scare quotes around the word "Town Hall" because the very phrase is an anachronism.

What are the Republicans scared of? The format of the debate has been exposed as less-than-novel and the impact of it on the Democratic party primary seems miniscule.

Are Republicans just against new things?

Against the Internet?

Cowards?

All three?

Answer seems to be "All three."