AND SEND FRED A THANKSGIVING DAY GIFT!
Posted on 11/15/2007 10:20:41 PM PST by ellery
A senior GOP official in Iowa tells us that Mitt Romney has decided not to attend the Fox News GOP debate in the state that was set for December 4 -- effectively killing the debate, according to this official.
Chuck Laudner, the executive director of the Iowa GOP, says that he got word of Romney's decision two hours ago. He claims that other leading GOP contenders were waiting to see what Romney was going to do -- and now that Romney won't be attending, the others will pull out too.
"With no frontrunner, there's no debate," Laudner said, adding that many Iowa GOPers would be upset with Romney's decision -- a potential blow in a state where Romney is facing an aggressive insurgent challenge from Mike Huckabee. The Iowa GOP had been heavily promoting the debate, the first one to be broadcast by Fox News in the state.
"It's disappointing," Laudner said, adding that Huckabee, John McCain and Fred Thompson had said they'd be showing up and that Rudy was waiting to see what Romney did. "We're losing a statewide 2000-person event. It's a huge, huge event. We had county chairs raising money off of it. They're not gonna be too happy."
There is another GOP debate scheduled for Dec. 12 in Iowa sponsored by the Des Moines Register.
Romney spokesman Kevin Madden confirmed the campaign's decision. "We have received invitations to a number of debates in the month of December," he emailed me.
"Along with other campaigns, we unfortunately had to decline an invite to a December 4 debate as part of a scheduling decision. We will be participating in a December 12 debate sponsored by the Des Moines Register however, and we look forward to that opportunity to again meet with Iowa voters on the issues."
Jonathan Martin, who's also on this story, says that this has the potential to really rankle in Iowa because "this was to be the state party's own event -- and on what amounts to the GOP's station of record."
Was this supposed to the “YOUTUBE” debate? If it was, I wouldn’t have if I was a candidate.
Let’s put some pressure on these folks and get them to hold the debate anyway.
And one take on the reasoning for this decision, here:
Mitt Romney’s camp, using a strategy often employed by self-funding candidates, sucessfully stonewalled the Dec. 4 Iowa debate into cancellation. Romney’s advantage in Iowa comes from being able to maximize paid media, and denying free media to his opponents is to his favor.
http://www.elephantbiz.com/2007/11/romney_caught_playing_politics.html
I don’t thinks so. Didn’t they have that stupid Youtube debate already back in the summer? It says this one is Fox News and the Iowa GOP.
I think this was the debate that was going to exclude Duncan Hunter, Tom Tancredo and Ron Paul. So, I can’t say that I am going to shed too many tears over it going away.
Romney has decided not to attend, thereby putting the Fox News debate into a Pizmo category of properly deserved obscurity.
The IRC earned it.
Let it be a message to all other State Republican Committees. Make future debate free and open to all the candidates regardless of "Polls" and lets see how they handle each others issues! Thats what campaigns are about.
Thank you Mr. Romney. You have evolved upward a notch in the minds of many Republicans.
Yikes. If true, that might not be very helpful to Romney’s numbers in Iowa. I guess we shall see if he takes a hit for this.
I understand Fred has some really good ads running right now in Iowa. That should be helpful to his campaign, I would think.
Romney is scared of the Huckster and doesn’t want to take the chance of blowing his lead in Iowa .
If there is a backlash against Romney , he will pander his way back into the debate .
This is progress? Now they're excluded again. It's tough to campaign by staying at home.
I don’t agree with excluding candidates based on current standing in the polls, either.
Given that we’ve heard again and again that early-state voters don’t take kindly to perceived snubs, it just seems like a curious decision from Romney — especially with Huckabee currently closing in on him.
Seeing as how there will be another Iowa debate a week later that Romney and Huckabee will be at, I doubt your theory. How many debates do the Iowans need, anyway?
So there is no frontrunner. “Huckabee, John McCain and Fred Thompson had said they’d be showing up”. The 2nd tier should still be given a voice.
How do you know that Romney will attend ?
No Rudy?
Did you read the article? "We will be participating in a December 12 debate sponsored by the Des Moines Register however, and we look forward to that opportunity to again meet with Iowa voters on the issues."
Sure thing .
Apparently the issue is that the Iowa GOP was promoting this pretty heavily, and local chapters were building fundraising events around it (since it was going to broadcast on Fox in primetime).
Me neither, DS, me neither. I laugh.
Ineresting comments on this story at the Des Moines Register’s site:
Sometimes the name game simply tells it all. “President Mitt” sounds silly, just like “President Gore” sounded like a bad slasher movie.
I agree — that would be fantastic.
The YouTube debate for Republicans is still scheduled for November 28, and the main YouTube page has a link. They don’t list at what time it will take place.
perhaps Bishop Willard has something
more important to do than debate.
baptizing dead people by proxy, perhaps
Nah, personally I don’t think his religion has anything to do with...well, anything, really.
I just think it’s an unexpected political move. It seems unwise to me, but the campaigns see different info than we see. It will be interesting to see how this plays out.
Hee!
So, what are they saying? If Mitt and Rudy aren't there, there won't be a big enough draw to make money? Kind of insulting to the rest of the field, don't you think? ;^)
Seeing as how the Iowa GOP had already seen fit to limit the debaters to those polling over 5%, I don't think they have a lot of room to squeal. If Romney and Guiliani not showing up leaves them with only three debaters, they've only themselves to blame.
I AGREE. The Iowa camp that moved to exclude Paul, Hunter and Tancredo now get their just desserts (and it isn’t pumpkin pie either!).
No debate at all is better than a debate which denies certain candidates a forum.
I’m not a fan of Willard Romney (yes, rumor has it that his real name isn’t Mitt at all), but I am glad he forced the cancellation of this farcical GOP debate.
This doesn’t add up to me, Something is amiss. Why the others would pull out is to me as perplexing as why Romney won’t show. If they show up for the debate and Romney doesn’t, I would think he would no longer be the so-called “front-runner”.
What are they a bunch of wimps? Hell, it isn’t like they are digging ditches or anything. If you know what you believe and what you think, get up there and tell the American people. When they do this they come off as primadonnas. As well they should.
It just occurred that one never knows if they are being set up to be sandbag so don’t go!
So, what are they saying? If Mitt and Rudy aren’t there, there won’t be a big enough draw to make money? Kind of insulting to the rest of the field, don’t you think? ;^)
That is what they are saying it seems. I wonder if they would have cancelled it if Fred had said no but the other said yes.
We expect solid discourse and debate. Romney needs to be accountable before the people and take his place in the debate.
This is going to seriously hurt Romney for running away from his opponents. It looks and smells like fear.
Interesting that Romney will appear at the Dec. 12 debate held by the liberal Des Moines Register and broadcast on Iowa Public Television.
But he won’t appear on the balanced Fox News, watched across the country.
There will be two more that week. Three sounded like overkill.
Sunday, December 9, 2007 – 7:00 p.m. EST: Univision TelevisionWednesday, December 12, 2007 – 1:00 p.m. CST: Des Moines Register Debate
“But he won’t appear on the balanced Fox News”
Balanced? Fox News is going all out to anoint Rudy. Mitt probably figured he was gonna be ambushed. He was just on a brawl with FOX over the use of some debate clips. FOX is not very happy with him.
I wonder how much FoxNews was involved in those decisions.
Watch them fill the Dec 4 air space with another Hannity interview of Rudi and Judi, LOL.
Good point. This debate was flawed. Fox is totally in the tank with Rooty.
They were not going to allow all the candidates into this debate.
Romney probably smelled a rat.
The last debate was totally manipulated by Fox.
If we get a really good debate, MSM who have picked their candidate, need to be left out.
How can it hurt Romney’s campaign to only have ONE debate in the state in a twelve-day period? It seems to me like it would hurt his campaign more to have a debate that excludes some of his colleagues (which this debate would have done). Romney has no need to fear anything here - he is winning in four of the five first states to hold primaries, and will likely win the Republican ticket.
“balanced Fox News?”
gag!
You mean with Hannity telling us sixteen times a day that we have to choose one of his latest 3?
Romney is now ducking debates? What a coward! Hold it without him and let the silence speak for itself!
“I wonder how much FoxNews was involved in those decisions.
Watch them fill the Dec 4 air space with another Hannity interview of Rudi and Judi, LOL”
Between their constant breaking “news” alerts on the latest star in rehab or puking on the side of the road, or getting busted for shooting somebody, and their incessant harping on who Republicans have to choose for the PRESIDENCY of the US, I wonder how many viewers they’ve lost?
You forgot Fox & Friends (aka Two guys and a bunch of blonds)
I still like Brit, but that’s it.
Note to folks in Iowa: If you would like to see what ‘Rats and RINOs can do for you, I cordially invite you to visit my home state of New York. We’ve got people and jobs fleeing the state, especially Upstate, so Heaven knows we can use the money. Upstate’s starting to resemble a ghost town. If you can’t visit, at least do some research. Then ask yourselves if you really, really want what we’ve got....
Yes, I like Brit, too.
Whenever I am flipping channels, and F&F comes on, I will watch Gretchen or Ducey, but when BK opens his mouth, click goes the control-real fast.
AND SEND FRED A THANKSGIVING DAY GIFT!
No the Youtube debate is still on.
It will be on CNN on Nov. 28th.
Yeah, but thats only on Iowa Public Television. Thats no nation wide like Fox News.
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