Authenticity. That’s what the YouTubers said they were trying to elicit when they submitted video questions for the Democratic debate. They were hoping to get past the candidates’ canned answers, to catch a glimpse of the person behind the glib comments.

Good luck on that.

Authenticity’s in short supply these days, especially on the subject of the war in Iraq. Both out on the campaign trail and in the halls of Congress, the aim is to score political points rather than shape public policy.

Look at what happened in the recent Senate debate. Before the Defense Department legislation went to the floor, Republicans started peeling away from the president on Iraq. Thoughtful members of both parties sought ways to actually effect a change in policy.

But as Republicans worked with some Democrats to craft their amendments, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., suddenly pulled the rug out from under them. He staged an all-night session; demanded a vote on a Democratic proposal for total troop withdrawal by April 2008; then, when his party lost, as Reid knew it would, he announced there would be no more votes on Iraq. The next day he saw in newspapers exactly the headline he wanted: “Republicans Block Senate Vote on Iraq Troop Withdrawal.”

Someone who authentically wanted to alter administration policy would have welcomed the chance to work with two powerful former committee chairmen, Sen. Richard Lugar, R-Ind., and John Warner, R-Va., to produce a proposal the White House and Defense Department would be forced to take seriously. But Reid was determined to deny Republican Senate candidates a vote against current Iraq policy. He chose instead to play to the Democratic base’s demand for immediate troop withdrawal, even though he knew he would not be accomplishing that end.

All of the Democratic candidates for president in the Senate voted with their party. But at the YouTube debate they admitted that withdrawal by next April would be impossible.