DailyKos should offer all the candidates, without regard to popularity, a chance for an announced moderated Town Hall style debate with the DailyKos readers.
Announcement should take place 15 hours before the event to prevent a flood of trolls from overwhelming the event. Or perhaps a cutoff by Userid could occur. Details.
The candidate should make a commitment of at least 8 total hours of posting over one day, with a break between so it covers at least 12 hours, so that Kossacks who work can participate, and the candidate's policy wonks can keep him from Intertube Suicide.
It should be a moderated exchange, with at least three DailyKos respected regulars with post removal capabilities to remove weird posts, although I'd say they should start on standby and see how it goes.
The candidates should be taught how to use the reply to post function, to keep responses pertinent, and the blockquote function so they can show what they are responding to.
In a large and fastmoving debate, it is easy to get lost.
The views should be Actual Words of the Candidate, not positions cut and pasted off their website, although I would imagine they'd dictate their replies to a fast-typing intern.
But NO PRE-FAB TALKING POINTS!
Perhaps the post count could be cut off at 400 and a new Debate Diary could happen.
Tags could be "Debate Diary + Candidate Name", and they could be collected, so that voters could make comparisons on issues in a common format.
I think it would seriously sand off the spin, sharpen the generalities that so often just make positions on issues "fuzzy wonders."
We need a way to interrupt and say, "Hey, cut the vague bullshit! Are you for single payer, or loophole insurance." Otherwise, they'll just fuzz out and try to avoid offending.
I want to know positions, not triangulations, and if there is anything the candidate diaries do here, it's attract people who can winkle positions out of candidates.