All eight U.S. Democratic presidential candidates held their first Internet-based debate Thursday.
Co-sponsored by Internet search engine Yahoo, the Slate online magazine and the Huffington Post blog, the so-called "mashup" is widely regarded as an unprecedented event because viewers can choose video clips of the candidates to watch.
For the first time, they can tailor the debate to their specific interests and line up clips of candidates so they can directly compare them on the same issue.
The questions for the Democratic candidates were posed via satellite link-up by TV talk-show host and debate moderator Charlie Rose.
The three topics of the debate -- Iraq, healthcare and education -- were chosen in an online poll on Yahoo in which more than 100,000 people voted.
The online debate was aimed to engage web users, particularly young people, who would not sit through a 90-minute traditional TV debate.
Responding to questions linked to the Iraq war, all the candidates agreed that this week's report to Congress by top U.S. officials in Iraq had failed to convince them of the chances of political reconciliation in Iraq.
Frontrunner Hillary Clinton announced that she would release her plan to offer universal health care next week, but gave few details.
Her major rivals, Barack Obama and John Edwards both pointed to Clinton's willingness to take contributions from lobbyists as a sign that she is too close to the Washington establishment.
The first online debate is the latest in a series of innovated forms of debate in the campaign for 2008 presidential elections.
In July, in a debate co-hosted by online video-sharing website YouTube and CNN, questions submitted online were put to Democratic candidates in a live discussion.
Republican presidential hopefuls will hold a similar debate in Florida in November.
Source: Xinhua
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