As embarrassing as it is to be an American these days, with our pathetic political representation, disgraceful media and voter apathy, Wednesday night was an incredibly shameful display by CNN. The Republican YouTube debate started out like an episode of "America’s Funniest Videos" and didn’t get much better.

You might think it would be a good idea for presidential candidates to answer questions from the people who will be voting. The questions should be reflective of the issues that actually concern Americans and could potentially catch candidates more off guard than the typical reporter questions. Not when CNN picks them. In substance, they are the same type of typical reporter questions, but instead they are asked in incredibly undignified and retarded ways.

The ridiculousness kicked off with a montage of YouTube videos from the last debate: We saw an idiotic snowman, an alien, a graphic Richard Nixon ghost, little kids, a speaking Abe Lincoln photo, along with a speaking Ben Franklin bill, stuffed animals and real dogs that talk. And that was what we weren’t going to see! Ha ha ha. Wow, great start. Republicans are trying to figure out which candidate to pick and CNN is wasting time showing how they were complete assholes during the Democratic debate.

Then CNN played a video of some idiot from Washington who had written a song about the debate and tossed it up on YouTube. It was a shocking new low for a presidential debate. The song was high school-level, variety show bullshit and embarrassing to every man, woman and Ron Paul in that auditorium. But we got to watch the candidates awkwardly watch the idiot strum his guitar and sing for three minutes. You can tell a debate is not starting well when the host says.

Now, close your eyes and picture Walter Cronkite saying that. How'd that go? Not so good, huh?

Anderson Cooper then got things off and running. We got immediately into one of the issues Americans care least about. Immigration! The two first questions can easily be summed up:

The third immigration question was from a small business owner and quite smart. But, hey, that’s three immigration questions! More than any other topic, I guess because it’s fifth on the list of important issues. Awesome!

26% - The war in Iraq
16% - Health care
14% - Job creation and economic growth
13% - Terrorism
11% - Illegal immigration
8% - The environment and global warming
6% - Energy and the cost of gas
3% - Social issues such as abortion and gay marriage
1% - Other (vol.)

Sadly, only McCain and Huckabee came across as slightly human in their answers on immigration. The rest were idiots. Oh, and there were only two questions about Iraq. No questions about health care. No questions about job growth, the environment, energy, on and on.

Finally, we moved on to…the NAFTA Superhighway. You know, the thing that does not exist. Why not just ask a question about what the candidates would do if Mothra was attacked the US? The irresponsibility of CNN to allow shit like this on the air is astounding. The question was directed at Ron Paul who, of course, pretended like the NAFTA Superhighway is real. Wouldn’t want to freak out your psycho followers, would you Paul?

Then we had a couple of decent questions from two women. Nicely done. So, why not follow it up with a question from a cartoon Uncle Sam about eliminating income tax? Anyone notice these questions are aimed at adults running for the fucking White House? Why not a question about Iraq from Snuffleupagus? Or maybe a zucchini with lips could ask about Social Security?

Then came a guy eating corn and asking about farm subsidies, a gun control question from a guy irresponsibly handing firearms, some fucking idiot asking what guns the candidates owned, a douche bag asking them if they believe every word of The Bible, another asshat pretending he was two different people, a question from a cartoon Dick Cheney who was threatening the candidates with a gun and an asshole asking a question about his precious Confederate flag. Overall, it was an embarrassing display.

There were some interesting and effective questions asked, but they were few and far between. CNN attempted to make the debate “entertaining” and ended up creating an arena of shame.

The crowd itself was disturbing. The cheering of torture, while a man stands onstage who was actually the victim of torture, is beyond disgusting. Not all joined in the Roman like blood lust, but it was well over half. The crowd was obviously pretty much all white. When they showed a wide shot of the entire theater, I could only see one black man. But I’d like to thank CNN for showing close ups of two different black men. Must have been hard to find them with all those white faces. Zero in on that oddity. Brava.

Mike Huckabee was the clear winner. He was well spoken, funny and focused. Mitt Romney stumbled quite a bit, particularly on The Bible question. Rudy Guiliani was on the defensive a lot and Fred Thompson was just pathetic. Not so easy without a script, eh, gramps? Ron Paul just seemed outclassed and was definitely the most booed candidate on the stage. But the strangest man to watch on that stage was John McCain. On one hand he seemed old and a bit tired, but then it became apparent that he didn’t know what the fuck had happened to his party. Here was a man who used to be completely conservative but is now considered a moderate. He often seemed disgusted with the black and white answers of his fellow candidates and the total lack of substance in their answers. He was visibly angry at Mitt Romney’s pro-torture response to one question. It made me remember why I liked him back in the day. Sad.