Today, one of the Republican Party's fastest rising stars, Louisiana Governor Bobby Jindal, joined New Orleans Democratic Mayor Ray Nagin to announce that they are working with YouTube and Google to "bring American voices into a forum with Presidential nominees."

Along with the New Orleans Consortium, Jindal and Nagin plan to host the forum on September 18, 2008 at the Morial Convention Center in New Orleans.

Appropriately, here's the YouTube announcement:

Let's hope all of the candidates decide to participate.

Two things worth thinking on:

1. For the past two Presidential events, CNN was the official media sponsor with YouTube. So far, no media carrier has been listed. We shouldn't assume that this means that CNN is out of the running for the gig, but given how CNN handled the Republican debate last fall (see the Save the Debate Coalition statement), I'd be surprised to see them get it.

2. As Dan Manatt blogged last December, the Commission on Presidential Forums has already made it clear that to increase participation, the "Internet" will play a major role in the second commissioned debate - which is a "town hall style" debate:

The second departure from past CPD formats will be the introduction of internet access to the presidential town meeting debate. Questions solicited by Internet will be included with those from citizens on the stage with the candidates.

The second CPD debate is scheduled for Tuesday, October 7 at Belmont University, Nashville, TN. Will YouTube and Google be there? Time will tell.

One thing is clear, I'm heading to both New Orleans and Nashville.