Earlier today, Steve Grove - Youtube's director of news and politics programming - interviewed Barack Obama live on Youtube (and on the White House's live feed) and asked him a series of weak questions that he answered with ease. Some or all of the questions he was asked were submitted by Youtube's visitors, very few of whom are familiar with specialized topics and with asking tough questions. Other visitors voted on the "best" questions, which allowed the weakest questions to rise (see popular voting systems). Youtube then chose the ones they wanted to ask from among those. In other words, it was a complete setup just like all the other setups they've been involved in; see the Youtube corporate page for a partial list.

And, I'm saying all that without having seen one minute of it, and I know I won't be wrong.

A roundup from the Washington Post is here, and video will be posted when it's available. Pushback is already coming from a Youtube user who points out that the highest rated question - yes, you guessed it, it was about pot - wasn't among those selected to be asked: youtube.com/watch?v=CWcZLn3x_aU At the current rate that comments are coming in to that video, it will probably end up very popular.

On a much more important topic, a scan of the first few results for "immigration" shows only a few on the right side, and they were as weak as the ones from the other side. People need to learn to put their egos aside and concentrate on the goal; that is, they need to help those who are familiar with a specific topic and with asking questions rather than submitting their own.

UPDATE: A transcript is here. If you find even one question in there that's tougher than a Pravda interview of a Politburo official, let me know.