Next issue, look for a summary of the Democratic YouTube debate.

On Nov. 28, eight Republican candidates seeking the presidential nomination for the 2008 election met in St. Petersburg, Florida for their YouTube debate, a few weeks after their Democratic counterparts took part in the first ever viewer-driven debate, broadcast on CNN and hosted by Anderson Cooper.

The range of discussion stretched from illegal immigration, to gay service in the military, to the Yankees/Red Sox debate. All candidates faced tough questions from YouTube-ers and each other.

The evening began with the YouTube reject questions and a song submitted by one creative user, and then turned to the first topic of the evening, illegal immigration. Former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani wasted no time attacking his main competitor in the polls, accusing former Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney of employing undocumented workers in his very own home, a charge Romney fell short of denying.

New York City has been declared a sanctuary city, something that the other Republican candidates routinely exploit as a weakness in Giuliani’s campaign. Former senator and “district attorney” Fred Thompson spoke out forcibly against the idea of sanctuary cities, and Arizona Senator John McCain faulted the Republican party for a lack of commitment to the cause. “We tried and we failed,” he said.

Tom Tancredo, the candidate with the reputation of being the most outspoken nominee regarding border control, addressed a Maryland farmer who predicted without the guest-worker program that he may be out of a job by stating that he is “not going to aid any more immigration into this country,” adding that the “massive” influx of immigrants, both undocumented and legal, harms the nation.

Two questions posed by YouTube users addressed one of the core demographics of the Republican party, the openly religious. One Bible-yielding individual asked the candidates if they believed everything in it as the word of God, to which Giuliani, Romney and Mike Huckabee all responded in the affirmative.

“I believe the Bible is the word of God,” said Mitt Romney.

“It’s the word of revelation to us from God himself,” added Huckabee.

The second religious question invoked Christianity out right, asking the candidates “what would Jesus do?” when it came to the death penalty. Again, the candidates who answered the question (Huckabee, Tancredo) avoided it directly, explaining their reasoning for their decision to keep the death penalty on the table as punishment for the most heinous of crimes.

“Jesus was too smart to run for public office, that’s what Jesus would do,” said Huckabee, to roaring laughter from the audience.

Another hot topic in the country and in the debate was the questions that are arising following the discovery of tainted goods from China. There have been numerous reports by news organizations looking at the impact of these discoveries on the holiday shopping season, by far the busiest few weeks of the year for retail stores. Duncan Hunter, a Congressional representative from California, suggested that “what we all ought to do this holiday season is buy American,” adding that doing so may also increase the number of jobs available.

A student from Seattle asked the candidates how they could disagree with Sen. McCain’s position on waterboarding as torture.

Waterboarding has been a key issue in Washington these past few months, as the legality and humanity of the interrogation technique has been called into question by military personnel and politicians alike. Those that support waterboarding, which simulates the sensation of drowning by pouring a steady stream of water over the suspect’s head, claim that it is not torture since the effects wear off. Opponents call the practice inhumane and a violation of the Geneva Convention.

Romney said that he doesn’t support torture, but he would not make a concrete statement on waterboarding, instead saying “I don’t think its wise of us to describe precisely which measures we would or would not use.”

He did state however that he is in favor of keeping suspects of terrorism in Guantanamo Bay and out of the US legal system.

“I don’t want the people that are carrying out attacks on this country?to be given legal representation in this country,” Romney said, to audible boos from the audience.

McCain responded, saying “if we’re going to get the high ground in this world and we’re going to be the America that we have cherished and loved for more than 200 years, we’re not going to torture people.”

One of the more tense moments in the debate came when retired brigadier general Keith Kerr, an openly gay man, asked why “American men and women in uniform, are not professional enough to serve with gays and lesbians.”

“Having openly homosexual people serving in the ranks would be bad for unit cohesion,” said Hunter, echoing a similar sentiment previously given by Colin Powell .

In prior debates, all of the Republican candidates stated that they would continue to support the current “don’t ask, don’t tell” policy which overtly prohibits gay men and women from serving in the military if their sexual orientation were ever to be revealed.

General Kerr, who was in attendance, expressed his immense dissatisfaction with the answers he was receiving to the question, calling “don’t ask don’t tell” “destructive to our military policies.”

He added that “every day, the Department of Defense discharges two people, not for misconduct, not for the unit cohesion…but simply because they happen to be gay,” to which he received a handful of boos and an equal if not greater amount of applause from the crowd.

Some non-issue questions were revealed throughout the course of the evening as well.

Ron Paul, who has a loyal but small following comprised largely of college-aged students, reiterated his intentions of not running as an independent candidate should he not win the Republican nomination. He is currently polling at less than 5 percent in national polls.

One startling no-show at the debate was New York Senator Hillary Clinton. The frontrunner for the Democratic nomination was mentioned just twice by candidates throughout the debate, a sharp decline from debates past, when the Republicans took breaks from attacking each other just long enough so they could jointly attack Clinton.

Mike Huckabee, who has steadily climbed in the polls since his formal entrance into the race in early June, was considered the victor of the debate.

Much of the debate focused on several other general topics that have been the bread and butter of the Republican party for years.

This debate was originally scheduled for mid September, but was forced to switch dates after key candidates like Romney and Giuliani decided they were unable to make the debate. A group of Republican voters started a website, savethedebate.com, to try and convince the candidates to keep the debate out of fear of falling farther behind the Democratic candidates in the effective and lucrative use of the internet.

The debate was criticized by some people as being too critical of the Republican candidates. Many pundits said that the debate was even harmful to the Republican party, perhaps mirroring Sen. McCain’s summary of why the Republicans may be in trouble, citing “our failure with Katrina, our failure in Iraq, our failures in reining in corruption and out of control spending.”

The first test for all of the presidential nominees will take place on January 3rd when the Iowa caucus convenes. Mike Huckabee is currently averaging ahead of long time front-runner Mitt Romney in the state polls, but in the national polls, both candidates are well behind Rudy Giuliani. The first primary is in New Hampshire on January 8th.

In the next print edition on Wednesday, look for the summary of the Democratic YouTube debate.