Last night, for the New Hampshire ABC presidential debates, I put the ABC Facebook app in my space on Facebook. True, there were videos on the app, but really, how good is an app if you have to watch an indeterminable amount of movies to run it?
What kind of forum did this duo offer?
You could post one comment on the Soundboard during the debate. There was an update key. If you erased your comment, typed in a new one and hit the “update” key another comment would be posted on the Facebook Soundboard. A good app would have used “new comment” instead of “update.” This “new comment” key would have erased the contents of the entry box, allowed the user to input new data and then hit an intelligently labeled button to submit the “new” data. Oh well no one of sound reasoning said that Facebook apps have technological talents.
Clearly ABC’s reporting of their Facebook app activity was the sportiest censoring of public opinion experienced on the internet since Google’s censor button named the “flag” first got pumped by well oiled media PR.
The Facebook/ABC app asked broad questions and displayed real time voting results. Did those results influence the current vote on the question? The app’s Soundboard comments ABC reported had been put through the clean machine. I did not see a single one of their reported posts flash on the ABC/Facebook Soundboard during the debate.
Did I really think some of my comments about how the moderator was running the debate just as the media have run this presidential 2008′ campaign would receive an ABC showing? No, trust me no hopes were made, thus none dashed 
I was on Facebook because besides receiving an invitation, I had hoped that there would be some dialogue, some Facebook internal debate. What I found was during the debate people were just commenting on the debate and not with each other. It was the apps “status quo.” One comment complained about how liberal the comments were and disdained the liberality of Facebook. There were quite a few comments along the lines of how Ron Paul should be a democratic candidate; disgust with the Republicans and how they were now going to vote for Ron Paul.
This app also offered its Facebook members an “in” to their candidate’s reporter and his or her “notes.”
Did I find myself paying more attention to Facebook or that it enhanced my experience during this debate?
I think it was an enhancement; but one only delivering an nth of what it could have. It kept me tuned to the debate. When the Republicans thoroughly bored me with their world, a world the rest of us don’t live in, only they could laugh at their barbs, only Mitt Romney could say personal barbs were interesting but not necessary. Yes it was during these tedious moments that I could go to Facebook and comment on the worst of it.
The app also allowed us to give the network some feedback on how they were doing. That feedback from me really started happening in the second half of the game when the Democrats played. Clearly the moderator had an agenda. Protest! The Democratic half was the most interesting. Barack Obama showed a side that some of us had never seen, when Hill slapped the hand she found in the cookie jar. As a result of this historic moment, its not Hill and Bill this morning, its Underdog Clinton; Hillary, the underdog, and many variations thereof to the tune of 322,000 google links. Yes, indeed. Hillary achieved another keyword slice of Google credibility last night!
I would have never thought Senator Edwards would use “status quo” on Hill alone, with only a side look at Obama and then letting him join the not “status quo” club, Bill Richardson kind of in a happy cluck. Oh the cost of all that, who will give and who will take on the next primary vote. Oh and is this “status quo” ball worse than the you got bad jacket comment?
In the end, the debate allowed each Democratic candidate to be remorseful? At least ABC recognized that Republicans have no remorse so why bother. Senator Edwards took back the jacket comment and Bill Richardson took back a JFK choice for Supreme Court Justice. All is now well with the Democratic party.
Best of all though, Barack Obama leaves us wondering what he mean’t when he consoled Hill on a polled popularity contest between Obama and Hill, he said “you are likeable enough.” Hill and Obama, now that’s a team, shades of likeability.
