Sorry, it wasn’t the American people. (See CNN transcript #1)

The early reaction from the liberal bloggers?

Mark Gisleson thought the YouTube potential fell short because of CNN’s selection process. And while critiquing some in the first tier of candidates, he’s ready to see the second tier excluded.

Ari Melber, a contributor at Huffington Post and The Nation magazine, liked the format and gave high marks to Clinton, Edwards and Obama.

Over at Down With Tyranny, Howie ripped a new one in Joe Biden. (And I agree with his critique).

Ron Chusid was unimpressed and highlighted Clinton’s word-parsing.

Pam Spaulding and her commenters zeroed in on the gay marriage question mostly, giving Kucinich and Richardson the highest marks on that. They also discussed Iraq, Darfur and enjoyed the YouTube approach.

John Aravosis liked the format, liked Anderson Cooper, liked the top three candidate responses and thought nothing got changed in the pecking order, overall.

Scout Prime liked the format, Cooper’s followup work, and liked Edwards’ candidate video the best.

Mustang Bobby was generally unimpressed but liked the candidate videos the best, also highlighting Edwards’ effort there.

That’s all I could find from left of center in the wee hours of the morning. American viewers gave the edge to Clinton. But the bottom line for me?

I won.

But they kept cutting my answers. Here’s a sample, based on actual questions:

Q: We have a Congress and a president with, like, a 30 percent approval rating, so clearly we don’t think they’re doing a good job. What’s going to make you any more effectual, beyond all the platitudes and the stuff we’re used to hearing? I mean, be honest with us. How are you going to be any different?

A: Instead of letting Dick Cheney choose my vice president, letting Dick Cheney ruining a valuable spy network that tracked nuclear arms, letting Dick Cheney determine our energy policy secretly with Enron and Exxon, letting Dick Cheney work with his longtime cohort, Rumsfeld, in determining our Iraq War strategies, instead of letting Dick Cheney’s Halliburton stock portfolio multiply because of his war profiteering on the sacrifices of our soldiers, I’d choose my own vice president. And in a country of 305 million people, I’m certain at least 250 million of them would prove more competent.

Q: how would America be better off with you as president than we would be if either Hillary Clinton or Barack Obama became president?

A: My income would increase far more than theirs, and the higher tax differential would put more total money in the public treasury. And I’d choose one of them as Vice President, which would establish a long overdue historical precedent of someone competent besides a white man in one of the two executive offices.

Q: how would you define the word “liberal?”

And would you use this word to describe yourself?

A: A liberal observes the problems Americans face and seeks change to provide a positive solution. A conservative sees the problems and tries to convince Americans that everything would be okay if they’d just change themselves into conservatives.

Yes, I’m a liberal. I believe a government can serve its citizens by creating fresh opportunities and the tools people need to seize those opportunities to improve their lives, to strengthen families and communities and to build a better nation than we’ve ever achieved previously.

Q: Partisanship played a major role in why nothing can be done in Washington today. All of you say you will be able to work with Republicans. Well, here’s a test. If you had to pick any Republican member of Congress or Republican governor to be your running mate, who would it be?

A: It’s a standard part in every newly elected President’s term that he or she will work with members of the opposition party. Political compromises occur to make that happen and it’s only exceptional when a president comes along who refuses to do that.

I won’t refuse to work with them. I will refuse to make any Republican my Vice-President. The last four Republican Vice Presidents Americans elected were Agnew, Bush, Quayle and Cheney, so I’m certain I don’t want to handicap myself like that. Though I’ve got to admit, I’d be happy to choose Dwight Eisenhower if he was available.

(I’ll admit that Edwards gave an answer that was almost as good).

Q: But is African-Americans ever going to get reparations for slavery?

I know you all are going to run around this question, dipping and dodging, so let’s see how far you all can get.

A: I defer to Congressman Kucinich on this. Yes on reparations. He’s got it exactly right.

Q: Do you believe the response in the wake of Hurricane Katrina would have been different if the storm hit an affluent, predominantly white city? What roles do you believe race and class played in the storm’s aftermath? And if you acknowledge that race and class affected the response efforts, what can you do to ensure that this won’t happen in the future? And what can you do to ensure this nation’s most needy people, in times of crisis and always, something will be done to help them too?

A: Yes, it would have been different. And the problems you described were afflicting New Orleans even before Hurricane Katrina. Mistreatment of Black Americans and the tens of millions of workers making less than $40,000 per year remain a shameful part of our country’s legacy. Post-Katrina policies have benefited more developers and land speculators than the marginalized citizens of New Orleans.

My highest priority in disaster relief would be to set policy requiring adequate evacuation planning, and a fast-track process to speed vouchers to displaced residents that could only be spent on food, rent, utilities and remodelling contractor services.

In non-emergency situations, I’d create lifelong incentives for the needy to further their education, boost the minimum wage to $10/hr in my first term, insist on a single-payer health care system that would take insurance companies out of the health decisions of all citizens and create a civilian corps that would give preference to low income Americans to be trained and hired in the fields of energy conservation and alternative energy technologies. It would be the greatest jobs program in the past 75 years and a major national security effort that would break our addiction to oil.

Q: Whenever I read an editorial about one of you, the author never fails to mention the issue of race or gender, respectively. Either one is not authentically black enough, or the other is not satisfactorily feminine.

How will you address these critics and their charges if one or both of you should end up on the Democratic ticket in ‘08?

A: I’m in touch with my inner Halle Berry. Elect me and I’ll send the videos to YouTube to prove the magic of that touch.

Q: Hi. My name is Mary.

Q: And my name is Jen.

Q: And we’re from Brooklyn, New York.

If you were elected president of the United States, would you allow us to be married to each other?

A: Sure. With equal opportunity, I support the idea that lesbians in love deserve to be as miserable as all other married people are. Till death are you stuck.

Q: I’m Gabriel. And I’m Connie, from a refugee camp near Darfur.

Before you answer this question, imagine yourself the parent of one of these children.

What action do you commit to that will get these children back home to a safe Darfur and not letting it be yet another empty promise?

A: I’d appoint a UN ambassador with a record as close I can find to the international relations record Governor Richardson has demonstrated previously in his remarkable career. In addition to the multitude of pressing issues in several Middle East and Central Asian countries, my ambassador would be told that UN intervention in Darfur must be accelerated immediately to stop the genocide and to alleviate the pressing needs of existing refugees.

By withdrawing the troops from Iraq within 6 months - another smart solution advanced by Governor Richardson, our own troops could gain sufficient rest in one year to be available as international peacekeeping forces. In pursuit of this essential foreign policy objective: this genocide must stop or be stopped.

Q: Mitch from Philadelphia.

My question for all the candidates: How do we pull out now? And the follow-up, are we watching the same blankin’ war? I certainly wasn’t a big fan of the invasion/liberation. It sickens me to hear about soldiers wounded and getting killed daily, not to mention innocent Iraqis, but how do we pull out now? The government’s shaky; bombs daily.

Don’t you think if we pulled out now that would open it up for Iran and Syria, God knows who — Russia — how do we pull out now? And isn’t it our responsibility to get these people up on their feet? I mean, do you leave a newborn baby to take care of himself? How do we pull out now?

A: The first point I’d make as President is that the American armed forces are willing to engage any enemy, at any time, undergoing any sacrifice to defeat our enemies. So our exit from Iraq is not rooted in fear of our casualties. It’s rooted in our understanding that our government screwed up.

The one major positive achieved occurred when Saddam was toppled and subsequently captured. That provided a majority of Iraqis a renewal of hope for a better government ahead.

But we screwed up badly at Abu Ghraib prison. Mismanagement of the occupation has bolstered those who seek to fragment Iraq by preying on divisions and millions of Iraqis have become refugees while hundreds of thousands have died or been wounded.

Our intention to leave is not about fear. It’s about correcting the things our government did wrong. And after we leave, we’ll continue to provide reconstruction funds and emergency relief in concert with Iraq’s neighbors.

Iraqis will have to settle their now reigning internal conflicts. That’s how democracies work. No one in Iraq or neighboring Iraq will gain should the bloodshed increase after we depart. But the leadership of the enemies who attacked us on 9-11 are not in Iraq and we must increase our efforts against that enemy so they understand the war against them continues till they can no longer threaten us in similar ways.

Iraqis are not our enemies. Shias and Sunnis are not our enemies. We hope our departure will provide new incentives for Iraqis to settle their internal conflicts. All of them will be financially better off when they can market their oil resources within a stable society. They will hold the keys to what their future looks like.

Our country had several rough times in the first 90 years of its emergence as an imperfect democracy that has improved over time. They will need time, too. A time free of US troops as a scapegoat when their government will have to produce or be replaced by a better one.

So… vote for me in 2008. Otherwise, I’m keeping my Halle Berry video to myself.