It may not be exactly the kind of political analysis you’re used to. But if the first batch of presidential debates bored, terrified or annoyed you, consider a different way to watch Wednesday night’s final square-off between John McCain and Barack Obama: Current TV, a cable channel that’s mostly programmed by its own viewers, is running the debate with wisecracks and witticisms culled instantaneously from Internet chatter.
In perhaps the most radical attempt yet to merge television with the Internet, Current’s “Hack the Debate” scrolls comments from the social-networking site Twitter.com across the screen, about one every five or six seconds, as the candidates debate. The comments – known as “tweets” – range from utterly hilarious to surprisingly insightful to unfathomably stupid.