So, election season is in full swing and there's debates every other week, and political bloggers are having the time of their lives. Even though the election is more than a year away, there's a couple of things that make this presidential election one of the coolest ones to happen in decades. First, there's the fact that there's no current president or vice president running, so the race is pretty open. There's around eight or nine candidates on both the Democratic and Republican sides; so the playing field is crowded and full of excitement.

But the other thing that makes this election really unique, in my opinion, is the new YouTube debates. In case you missed the first one, you can now view it at YouTube.com/debates. The first debate was about two weeks ago, with the Democratic candidates, and close to 3,000 regular American citizens submitted videos on YouTube of themselves asking questions of the candidates. The questions ranged from serious (ie What is your view on gay rights?") to silly (All the candidates should have an ab contest! Or: Do you believe in aliens?) About 30 were selected and the videos were shown in the debate and the candidates really had to answer to the people.

The cool thing about it is that American citizens actually had a chance to ask politicians about the issues that matter to regular people, and actually got answers. I think that this is just the beginning — I think we'll be seeing a lot more user-generated types of debates in the future, and it's a great way for anyone to get involved in the system and have politicians answer to them.

So if you missed out on the first one, fear not. The next YouTube debate (the Republicans this time) is scheduled for Monday, September 17, and YouTube is accepting video questions right up until Sept. 16. Check out the videos — and maybe even submit your own! — at YouTube.com/republicandebate.