Yesterday, when I was watching the CNN/YouTube Democratic debate I noticed that there was a significant number of Californian's questions that were selected to be asked of the candidates. Out of the 38 questions that were asked, eight came from Californians. No other state even came close to matching that total. Minnesota, Michigan, South Carolina and Pennsylvania had two each. The rest were single digits and two came from unknown locations.

Everyone in the country was eligible to submit a question. A state by state breakdown of the origin of all of the 2,000+ questioners is impossible to find, since we only know user names. However, during the debate they listed the hometown of almost all. So we can't know if this was a representative sample of the questions asked. Regardless, it is great to see so many Californians get a chance to ask the candidates questions during the debate. Wouldn't it be ironic if there were more CA questions asked during this debate than the one in LA?

Below the fold are the Californian questions and the name and hometown of the questioner.

Over the weekend, MoveOn hosted one of a series of virtual townhalls, where the presidential candidates answer questions of concern to MoveOn members. This one was on the climate and timed to coincide with Live Earth.

All of the Democratic contenders participated and were asked three questions:

1. How does your plan on climate crisis differ from other candidates?
2. Do you support the use of an subsidies for liquid coal?
3. How will Americans, not just corporations, benefit from new energy economy?

The responses were video taped and put up on YouTube. Nobody really made any real news in their comments, but it is an easy way to compare the candidates in a non-traditional format. The candidates often use the initial questions to address their broader environmental and energy policies.

Here is the highlights video.

Perhaps the most interesting tidbit was that while Senators Edwards and Obama stated their support for a carbon emissions market (cap-and-trade variation), Clinton said that it would be one of several things she would consider.

[UPDATE] 5:30 pm Check out this quick and snarky overview of the top five Democrat's plans on the environment by Grist. It is well worth a read.

Salladay reports that the DNC is set to announce shortly that California has been picked to host one of the six officially sanctioned DNC debates. CBS will broadcast the debate live from LA on December 10th. It will be a great opportunity to hear more from the candidates on the issues Californian's care about most.

The whirlwind weekend is now over and its time to reflect back on the overall performance of the presidential contenders. Here is my performance assessment of the candidates at the CDP Convention.

Mike Gravel was the only candidate to speak on Friday and had the smallest crowd of any candidate. It was outside and more delegates were interested in the free food and chatting than listening to him out on the patio. He was not nearly as passionate as he was on Thursday's debate. This appearance did not do much for his campaign.

Hillary Clinton did what she needed to do. She humanized herself to a crowd who had demonized her over the years. Clinton was never going to wow the delegates like Obama, but she earned the respect of the delegates. Her speech was not tailored enough to a Californian audience. She did much better addressing Californian issues like the environment in her press availability, whereas she talked about 9/11 in her speech.

Barack Obama was on fire. He lived up to his reputation as a master orator, but his speech was devoid of a lot of substance. It sounded great and was inspirational, but let delegates wondering where he stood on the issues. He was the only candidate not to take reporter's questions after his speech.

Chris Dodd gave a good substantive speech, tailored to the audience. It was unlikely that he picked up a lot of traction, but delegates received it warmly. He did very well in the blogger interview, much more engaging than his speech.

Dennis Kucinich appealed to the left most elements in the crowd, but did not give a speech likely to change his low single digit support in the state.

John Edwards has come a lot way from four years ago, where he was booed over his Iraq war position. Of all of the leading candidates, he exceeded expectations, bringing both substance and inspiration. Of all of the candidates, Edwards probably picked up the largest number of supporters at the convention.

Bill Richardson connected to the crowd better than the rest of the second tier candidates, but spoke to a severely reduced audience. He performed the opposite of Dodd, doing better in the speech then in a small group setting.

When I get the videos up I will talk more about the policy substance in their speeches, rather than performance. It was an absolute delight to have all of the candidates speaking at the convention. This is a very strong field of candidates and that was on full display.

San Diego is the place to be, if only my plane would show up at the gate. I am not the only CDP Convention attendee waiting for this plane. People are converging from all over the state to primarily hear from the 7 out of the 8 Democratic presidential contenders. Biden is the only one not speaking. Mike Gravel kicks things off tonight. The Chron has a nice preview piece up today.

A parade of Democratic presidential candidates -- aiming to stake a claim in a key early primary state -- is scheduled to arrive in California this weekend to fight for supporters, donors and potential delegates in what already is an intense, competitive 2008 presidential race.

Seven of the eight announced Democratic presidential candidates will address the California State Democratic Convention, where an audience of about 2,100 party members, 300 guests and more than 400 reporters will convene beginning today at the San Diego Convention Center.

The gathering in what party leaders call "the biggest, boldest, most bombastic blue state" is a high-profile stage for the Democratic hopefuls coming off their first debate of the primary season on Thursday.

The reception given the candidates, appearing before the Democratic true believers in the nation's most populous state, will be scrutinized for their ability to fire up the grass roots and reach out to the thousands of potential backers. And they'll be judged by political pundits on their reception from the crowd and the strength of their organization's effectiveness at the convention.

And with that I will board, laptop, tripod and video camera in tow. A press pass awaits on the other side.

Mark Mellman conducted a fabulous poll and an even better memo, complete with graphs on likely Democratic primary voters in California. Error margin is +/-4.9%. Overview:

Our just completed statewide poll shows Hillary Clinton with a 19 point lead in the California Democratic primary. Despite Senator Clinton’s lead, however, the race is far from over. Her advantage is based importantly, but not completely, on two malleable factors: her higher name recognition and the belief that she would be the strongest general election candidate. She is the best known contender, but Obama and Edwards are more popular among Democratic primary voters who know them. Furthermore, a plurality (27%) of Democratic primary voters would support Barack Obama’s candidacy if their first choice candidate were no longer running in the primary. There is room for other candidates to break through to the California Democratic primary electorate between now and February 5, 2008; the race is very much still up-for-grabs.

The fat lady has not sung. There is much greater detail in the memo, but here is the graphical representation of the candidate's favorability rankings.

We want "Choices" to be your one-stop-shop for tracking the 2008 Presidential candidates on key quality-of-life and economic security issues. Why? Because our polling shows these will be key to determining voters' choices for President, along with the dominant issue of Iraq. But thus far, likely voters report hearing strikingly little from the candidates on anything other than Iraq.

The site should be a two-way street -- a place for voters to track the candidates, and a place for the candidates to speak directly to voters about core quality-of-life issues that so many voters rank as their greatest concerns. So we're engaging the campaigns to encourage them to provide Californians with their plans for quality education, economic security & good jobs, the environment, energy & and sustainability, and health care.

To start, you can read about the strategic research, see the pollster's two memos -- the issues and the horse race. You will see statistics from that poll sprinkled throughout the site.

Political Wire has a nice preview of tonight's activities.