Comment pending approval

Have you been following the presidential campaigns?

Hard not to, isn’t it?

It certainly is pervasive and tends to dominate mainstream media outlets in this ongoing "he said, she said, he said" battle.

I have to admit, I’m pretty interested in the banter.

It has a certain kind of appeal.

Youtube.com, which is an online video web site, helps me keep in touch with what all the candidates are saying while out on the campaign trail.

I check in now and then to see which one has put their foot in their mouth this time, and to find out just how far it went in.

Although we still don’t know who the Democratic nominee will be, a lot of people have been asking themselves, which of the three they would vote for when November 4 gets here.

Honestly, I really have not made up my mind, which is why I follow the "banter" – trying to get a feel for the character of each of the three candidates.

Being president of the United States is an important job, and I want to vote for the best one.

There are things that I don’t like about all three. At times it seems hard to find something real – something tangible – that allows me to draw a distinction between them.

Recently, I found something – on Youtube of all places.

I was watching an Obama video, posted by the Obama campaign, in which he says, among other things, "Shame on you" to Hillary Clinton.

After watching the video, I noticed something interesting.

There is a place under the videos at Youtube where visitors can post comments about the video they have just seen. After watching the video, I started browsing through these comments and I noticed that all the remarks were overwhelmingly "pro-Obama." There are lots and lots of glowing comments there about what a great president Obama would make and how his speech was absolutely the best thing ever said by anyone – ever!

But here’s the odd thing.

Not a single negative comment was posted.

Not one.

How could this be?

I mean, sure, he’s popular – but there’s got to be someone out there that doesn’t like him, right?

So, I thought I’d give it a try.

I posted a comment telling Sen. Obama that I thought that free trade was actually a good thing. He had talked some in the video about how he’s against free trade.

Just when I finished posting my critical comment, an interesting thing happened.

A message popped up that said, "comment pending approval."

Suddenly it all made sense.

There are options that one can select when posting a video on Youtube, and one of those options is to reserve the right to approve each comment before allowing it to be seen by visitors to the web site.

It seems Senator Obama decided it was important for him to pick and choose which comments were displayed. He apparently only chooses comments that are very positive about his campaign and message. He does not post comments that criticize him in any way.

After a little exploring, I found out that Hillary does the same thing. She only allows positive remarks about her and her campaign to be displayed.

And then I found something remarkable.

When I went to see the videos posted by John McCain, I noticed that there were both kinds of comments displayed. Positive and critical remarks were there, side by side and anyone who visited the web site could post a comment instantly – even a negative one – without having to wait for "approval."

I’m not a big fan, but I have to say that Senator McCain scored some big marks in my book when I figured this out.

I believe that a candidate should be open and willing to accept comments that are critical of themselves or critical of their campaign – how else can they appreciate and know what the people of this country are thinking?

I still have not made up my mind, and I probably will not make up my mind until Election Day.

That’s kind of how it usually works for me.

Until then, I’ll keep watching.