CNN

This is an interesting article but it is misleading. My mother is very close to the age of Mrs. Kolger and she is very computer savy. Mrs. Kolger makes it appear as if her entire generation is left out of the debate simply because they cannot use the technology. This isn't the case however.

The debate is a collaboration of YouTube and CNN. If you wish to participate in this particular debate style it would be in your best interest to learn the technology. If you are not capable of learning then find someone who is. Perhaps your local Senior Citizen Center or an OutReach program.

No one is being discriminated in this situation. Most computers come with cameras built in. They are plug and play, which makes them very easy to use. I wonder if Mrs. Kolger has even taken the time to click the icon that turns on her webcam. It is just easier to not learn the technology and blame others for being left out of the debate. This may sound harsh but it is the truth.

Wow!! I didn't get the feeling she was crying "poor me". I think she brought up a valid point – if CNN wants to involve us in the debate – why not have some sort of email or phone system.
If there were 5000 videos submitted for this debate, I find it hard to believe the questions posed at this debate were the best of the bunch.

Based on the comments of Ms.Nancy Kolger of Richmond, Indiana:
How were her comments received to begin her feelings of discrimination? Were they sent over the electronic media? Did she type the comments out and send them to someone? Her reference to herself: "As a Senior Citizen..." identifies only a chronological age group and, based on the groups of individuals I deal with, do not see themselves as handicapped or restricted in their ability to learn new and different things in order to function in the ever-changing and improving media arena that Al Gore claims to have invented: The World wide web.
Her disappointment that specific questions (or topics) about something were not asked is certainly a terrible thing, but hardly the fault of the candidates, moderators or broadcasting companies. The format for the questions and the method for delivering the questions could have been rectified for her by simply asking for assistance from places such as her local library, high school computer class, junior college campus or her choice of political party affiliation (whether she is a part of the organization or not): All of whom would have been glad to contribute their assistance to assisting her to get the guidance and help she needed to post her question. I have been assured that the opportunity to assist any of our elderly folks to move into the new media arena would be greeted with enthusiasm. Our young people want to show off their talents and would have leaped at the chance to assist and provide her with one of the best formats and compositions for her question just to impress her and provide a great show of their talents.
What Ms. Kolger needs is to look outside of the complaining box and the "Poor me: I'm old and can't learn and won't ask for assistance" condition she has labeled herself as being not only in; but in by the choice of not wanting to get out!
Don't know how to do something? Ask for assistance!
Claiming discrimination due to you own lack of initiative and then blaming CNN for not knowing YOUR limitations is like asking the server to bring you a free dinner and then complaining you didn't get what you wanted; without ever telling them WHAT you want.
Ms. Kolger: Take a class; ask for help and quit complain: You had plenty of time to figure out the questions you wanted to ask and how to ask them. Formating them is your problem, NOT CNN.
CNN: good job on the reporting and the event.
Ms. Kolger: If you want a specific forum or candidate debate: Tell the candidates: don't hold the broadcasters responsible for making the candidates pick their audiences: YOU as the voter have that tasking and if you want answers: ASK the questions to the candidates.

I agree with you completely, Nancy. You have stated the case for many of us very well....thank you.

My parent's generation made their bed, let them lie in it.

There was an effort to to have a debate on senior's issues - I believe AARP was sponsoring. None of the Republican candidates would agree to come. Just as they refused to address Black voters. Just as the refused to address hispanic voters.

Why should we vote for someone who is afraid to address large portions of our population even when they have had weeks, even months, to prepare and hone their messages? How can we then be expected to trust them to deal with an emergency situation with world leaders who don't like us?

Simply put, I can't.

Ms. Kolger is absolutely correct. I had dozens of questions I could have asked the Republicans, but since I don't own a video cam or a webcam, I was stuck. And by the way, you kept blasting that you had 4000 submitted questions. The ones you chose were the best you could do??? For a supposedly Democrat-leaning network, you were playing softball with those guys.

Hon: if you want to hear about social security issues, or health care, or anything remotely important (unless you're an astronaut who's super-excited about a martian mission) the repubs may not be the best for forum matters.

What a great point Nancy brings up. It was a shame that these important issues were essentially ignored during the Republican CNN/YouTube debates, while arguably less important issues were raised, such as getting a person to Mars and how many guns each candidate owns.

To Nancy's other point, wouldn't it be interesting for a debate to be held, centering entirely on issues of the elderly? As the Baby Boom population reaches the older years, these issues become exceedingly relevant and should be given the attention they deserve. I think CNN could make this happen...

Nancy you're right, sometimes even us over-30s feel left out technology-wise. CNN should hold an on-line forum for senior citizens or others who can't participate in video forums, to interact with candidates .

it's about time the young people got a chance to have a voice. Young people are already oppressed with making tranfer payments via social security that we will never see. The money that I put in now is going directly to retirees–not to an account that I can control or expect will be there for me in later years.

I don't complain (not enough, anyway) that the young voters of this country don't receive representatin from special interest groups in the same way that other demographic groups do–the AARP, for example.

I guess the spirit of the early 60s is no longer prescient to some this commentor–last I checked, it wasn't about what the country could do for you–drugs, housing the elderly, keeping jobs in the US, keeping gas prices artificially low, etc–it was about what you could do for your country.

Interesting, then, that the candidates were uniform in suggesting that there was a distinct group of people–those that prefer intimate relationships with members of the same sex–should not be asking what they can do for their country or serving their country in the armed forces.

I can't wait unil the young people that want to do something about and for the state of our country, irrespective of partisan beliefs, take charge. Enough of entitlements, already.

Sorry health care, drug cost ...etc is clearly not as important as the Red Sox series.
Thanks to that question I now feel that I am able to adequately choose a canidate.
Although it is not like any of the canidates would actually answer a question.
I think the only recourse is to ask each canidate a simple yes or no question and not allow them to respond with any other answer. Maybe a standardized test is in order with (it is about the only way G Dub would stand a chance):
A- Yes
B- No
C- I do not have an opinion
D- I do not know.

I wanted to hear about the dollar and the economy, but I didn't get that, either.

I just heard that the SPP is a figment of the imagination..
Look it up just as Ron Paulo said!