Nevada hits the big time

It's amazing what a national cable television audience can mean for a presidential caucus in little ole five-electoral-vote Nevada.

Colleagues, family and friends from around the country phoned and e-mailed me this week with comments like, "Did you know there's a debate?" (family) and, "Who've you interviewed lately?" (colleagues).

But beyond this Nevada awareness that's brewing outside our borders, regular Joe Voters have been phoning, too -- asking about tickets and show times and other events.

The Jan. 19 caucus has finally hit the big time in Las Vegas, where it took cable giant CNN to temporarily trump the neon.

My fellow Nevadans, it may be fantastic to get all this exposure, but remember, you're still seeing the candidates through a lens. As much as debates have open-ended structures, there's little doubt the question-and-answer sections are vetted to the hilt.

On Tuesday, I wrote about how Democratic candidates have been complaining about plants asking questions at small town-hall meetings that were supposed to be impromptu affairs.

Make no mistake, a live two-hour debate being broadcast worldwide is neither impromptu nor small. CNN doesn't want to run the risk of a college kid suddenly ripping open his jacket to expose a "Join Rudy" T-shirt any more than it wants a bunch of white men asking the questions.

The political vetting seems appropriate to ensure the questioners are not just plants for a particular campaign. But it clearly has gone too far in some cases -- and not far enough in others.

For instance, CNN had chosen a question sent in by a College of Southern Nevada environmental class. The students in the class "Science Fiction vs. Fact: The Politics of Global Warming" posed an alternative energy question that the network found suitable. But it didn't find student Terrell Potter, 21, to be the right messenger.

Potter said he is a registered Democrat who voluntarily told CNN he had donated to the presidential campaign of libertarian Republican Rep. Ron Paul. Was he sunk merely because of the donation, or because that while he is a student of biodiversity, he is just too caucasian for prime time? What if Mr. Potter happened to be black? Would CNN have overlooked the donation? What if the donation had come from his mother?

At the same time, though, CNN will allow a question from a man whose spouse works at R&R Partners, where boss Billy Vassiliadis is a Barack Obama guy. Would you exclude someone whose wife works for a big Obama supporter? Hillary Clinton's campaign would. And would the Obama campaign think it OK for a woman to ask a question if her husband has already declared his support for Clinton? Apparently that's OK for CNN, too.

So, while you're watching the so-called undecided Nevadans ask their questions, remember that what you're seeing on the TV screen is as controlled as CNN chose to make it.

That's ironic, because all the MoveOn.org types fretted hysterically earlier this year when the state Democratic Party chose Fox News Network as the cable channel to air a potential Reno debate in August. They feared what news anchors would ask the Democrats. They feared how the vetting of questions would occur. Most of all, they used their anti-Fox petitions to raise a crapload of money and sink the debate in the process.

Reno was robbed of its biggest little chance to hit prime time.

Tonight's hour-long Nevada question section still has the potential for chicanery.

With Fox, the Democratic National Committee vowed to enter a contract that would make the debate actually play out in, dare I say, a fair and balanced way. But CNN has tossed former Alaska Sen. Mike Gravel completely off the stage because he hasn't raised enough money. Rules are rules, but is that fair? Balanced?

At least CNN has been able to bring attention (not to mention national media) back to Nevada. On a weekly basis, some Sunday talk show host or news anchor has talked about Iowa, New Hampshire and South Carolina without mentioning us. But they certainly can't ignore us when they've brought their bus and their shows and the eyes of the world.

We'll undoubtedly see Harrie's Bagelmania, some UNLV professors and maybe Culinary union brass on the little screen.

CNN has brought the buzz that allows individual presidential campaigns to boast they can turn out up to 40 percent of Democratic voters for the caucus. If that happens, no one will think the 100,000-voter prediction is pie-in-the-sky anymore.

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid this week stood by that projection, which many of his fellow Democrats have subsequently avoided. "That's the number we've had from the very beginning," he said this week on a conference call.

It seems Reid has joined in the fervor created by the pre-debate hype. So who cares how honest it is or who asks what?

As long as it looks good, we win.

Contact Erin Neff at eneff@reviewjournal.com or (702) 387-2906.