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Grade the candidates in last night's Fox News/Google Debate

By Steve Grove

Head of News And Politics, YouTube

Last night’s Fox News/Google Debate brought your top-voted questions to the Republican candidates right here on YouTube. In the lively two-hour debate, over a dozen of your questions were posed to the candidates, while search trends and question data provided more information on the issues you were most interested in.


Now it’s time to grade the candidates on their answers. Did they answer the questions directly? Did they answer them well? Visit youtube.com/foxnews now to watch individual clips of each question-and-answer exchange and provide feedback on how the candidates did.

The Fox News/Google Debate was the most-watched debate of the 2011 season, averaging 6.1 million viewers, according to Nielsen Media Research. If you missed it, you can also watch the full broadcast here:

In addition to voting on videos of the debate, you’ll find a “Pulse” tab on the channel that shows data visualizations of the questions you submitted. You’ll also be able to watch clips from our online show with Shannon Bream and Chris Stirewalt, where we examined your questions and issue searches in more detail.


During the debate, we also looked at what searches were spiking on Google. Of all of the candidates names, the underdog former Governor of New Mexico Gary Johnson’s name saw the biggest spikes.
Candidate Searches during Fox News/Google Debate

Viewers were also interested in finding out more about Herman Cain’s “9-9-9” plan -- every time he mentioned the plan, searches for it on Google spiked.

Searches for Cain's 9-9-9 Plan

Check out more search trends on the Google Public Sector Blog.


As the GOP primary continues to heat up, you’ll be able to find information straight from the candidates right here on YouTube. Our next scheduled debate is with PBS and the Des Moines Register on January 12th in Iowa -- stay tuned for more information on how you can participate.

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