YouTube Questions Force Real Answers

This column was written by CBS News Early Show co-anchor Harry Smith.

I speak of course of the Republican debate where the questions come from real people recorded and sent into CNN on their computers.

The questions are clever, quirky, better thought out, and better posed than the ones most of us reporters come up with and, for that very reason, the candidates seemed forced into a position of actually answering the question as opposed to the usual careful couching of an answer -- which feels like no answer at all.

The voting starts in little more than a month. Much is at stake and you could really see it on TV last night.

A little sweat on the lip. Contorted faces during an opponents attack. Verbal stumbles. Awkward silences.

Soon it will be too late to mount a comeback, to reintroduce or redefine yourself. Don't wait for 2008. The campaign is now and, thanks to the YouTube questions, the candidates are out of their comfort zone.