MySpace and the Commission on Presidential Debates (CPD) announced the launch of its toolset for MyDebates.org, a new website that will house interactive tools for viewers to virally engage in the political process, including a personalized issue scorecard, polling, reportable national statistics, live web streaming and much more.

MyDebates.org is part of a landmark partnership between MySpace and the CPD for the upcoming presidential and vice presidential debate series. The partnership marks the first time that the CPD has paired with an Internet property to include online functionality into the event series and traditional debate format.
 
When visiting MyDebates.org, users will be prompted to take an “Issues Quiz” that will assess their stance on 14 issues, including the economy, national security, the environment, same-sex marriage, education and healthcare. Once they’ve taken the quiz, users can see how their values line up with the candidates and view a state-by-state breakdown of how other Americans feel on the issues. Users will also have the option of downloading a personalized application which can be embedded anywhere on the web, for example on a blog, social networking site like MySpace, or another website. The application will provide a summary of the user’s stance on the issues, on-demand playback functionality and issue-based tracking, allowing users to track a candidate’s stance on issues they care about throughout the debate series.
 
The general election debates, a series that includes three separate presidential debates and one debate featuring the candidates running for vice president, will kick off on September 26 with a broadcast on all the major national television networks. Each historic television event captures more than 60 million worldwide viewers and will now include an entirely new audience online able to watch each debate via live web stream.

Originally posted on September 18, 2008 @ 10:13 am