Illustration courtesy of Flickr user Ricardo Carreon.

Like a small unhappy section of society I spent most of Friday morning yawning profusely looking to all the world like I was suffering the consequences of a particularly heavy night out. But alas, I must confess to night-time pursuit far less socially acceptable and indeed more sordid and solitary, I was watching the vice-presidential debate.

With the penultimate debate approaching this Tuesday here’s a quick guide for those of equally seduced by the political theatre of these unique events.

Recorded

For those far to sensible to burn the midnight oil the best option is probably CBS’s video podcast [iTunes Link] high quality uncut video of the whole debate usually appears within about 24 hours for easy computer/commuter consumption.

Live

As far as the live experience goes video the debates is streamed online in virtually identical fashion by most of the major news networks in the UK and the states, the BBC stream is pretty reliable, apparently they also broadcast it in on that television business as well. The only people to do something different with the content is Al Gore’s interesting Web 2.0ish TV venture Current TV, who produce Hack the Debate which artfully overlays proceedings with a live Twitter stream of user submitted commentary. Whilst the premise of combining the worst kind of knee-jerk digital politicizing and the not so bon mots of Twitter seems like a recipe for pain, it’s surprisingly diverting, at least in a live context. What it produces is a kind live vox pop, and as an often baffled observer of the way America votes, it’s genuinely fascinating to watch the live reaction to the dog whistles of Americana that often fall on deaf ears on this side of the pond.

Analysis

As for analysis the ever entertaining The New Yorker put out a superb set of podcasts [iTunes Link] with commentary and discussions from their essayists. Less obvious is the conspicuously shoestring-budgeted but nonetheless superb web-based TPM TV who put out short 2-5 minutes videos daily with a mix often comically distilled US political broadcasting and some really sharp analysis, think maybe of The Daily Show with less Stewart slapstick and more political geekery.

Anything great I’m missing? Do let me know in the comments.

Filed under: election2008, podcasts, presidentialdebate, uspolitics on October 5th, 2008