Posted on 02/16/2012 12:45:46 PM PST by KansasGirl
The front of the GOP pack will be absent at the March 1 debate in Atlanta sponsored by CNN and the Georgia Republican Party, CBS News/National Journal has learned. The Mitt Romney and Rick Santorum campaigns said they have decided to skip the debate, throwing into question whether it will happen as planned. "With eight other states voting on March 6, we will be campaigning in other parts of the country and unable to schedule the CNN Georgia debate," Romney spokeswoman Andrea Saul said. "We have participated in 20 debates, including eight from CNN." The 20 debates include one scheduled for Feb. 22 in Mesa, Ariz.
(Excerpt) Read more at nationaljournal.com ...
The candidates have finally figured out that any debate “set-up” by the old media is nothing more than a RAT trap. The demorat controlled old media has no intention of setting up a real debate for republicans.
EXACTLY.
Nope. They all will be debating Feb. 22nd in Arizona. You can see your progressive Gingrich then. CNN has cancelled the debate in Georgia since Gingrich was the only taker.
If only a national TV gave two hours to Newt to address directly to the American people all the real problems and solutions on what America is ailing of, and how to overcome them, instead of the gotcha questions and 30 second replies...
But they won't. CNN preferred to drop the "debate" when Mitt&Rick chickened out.
They would rather endlessly blather about Ms.Houston dying of abuse of drugs...
There were several debates co-sponsored by outlets like the Wall Street Journal
Christian Broadcast Network? Really? We’re not electing a national priest or pastor, we’re electing a president. Of course I realize Santorum supporters don’t understand that. They’d rather vote for someone who “shares their values” even if they have no executive experience other than managing a charity where 2/3rds of the money went to him and his buddies. They’d rather vote for someone who helped send the country into the debt crisis we’re in now with vote after vote after vote to increase spending.
Santorum supporters don’t seem to realize that once we go bankrupt like Greece, our military is going to go down with the rest of the country. Then evil will spread throughout the world unchallenged, sooner or later invading our shores and destroying what remains of our way of life. But the Santorum fans can sit back and smugly tell themselves that it’s not their fault. They voted for someone who “shares their values,” and they can’t help it if no one who “shared their values” and had any competence, creative solutions or leadership skills was running.
We probably didn’t need the 10 or so debates before October of last year. But now is when we REALLY need them. The closer we get to the election, the more likely the issues of the day are going to be relevant. We’ve whittled down our pool of candidates to the likely nominees, who now each have more than double the time to talk in the debate than they did last year before voting started. And this is when people are actually VOTING. Who voting now is going to remember what was discussed back in the fall? Backing out of debates now is an insult to the voters and a corruption of the political process. Debates foster an open and democratic process. Attack ads funded by millionaires and Wall Street tycoons do not.
I see, so we'll have to wait until Santorum goes up against Obama in the fall to see if he knows how to answer the birth control question? What a strategy. Just imagine if we had waited until then for someone to ask Romney about his tax returns.
The chickens will be coming home to roost, and they’ll be left with egg on their faces.
Newt will debate anywhere, any time, because he’s unafraid. He hides behind no one. What a concept.
No, we have Newt’s speeches and his policies to point to. All of them blow away Obama’s, Mitt’s, Rick’s and Paul’s. All of the candidates benefit from the practice of the debates. Newt will be able to iron out his few wrinkles if they go on and the other candidates will hopefully find a way to polish up their flimsy, tepid, hollow answers as well.
Fixed it.
AMEN!
You're on a roll, JediGuy.
NEWTAPHOBIA indeed. The cowards won't allow a home game.
May the Farce be with them.
To the people who say “we’ve had enough debates” I ask, HAVE WE HAD ENOUGH NEGATIVE ADS? If any candidate who pulls out of a debate also agrees to stop all of their negative ads, then maybe I could respect them. But trading debates for negative ads? No thank you.
Newt redefines the term Fearless Leader.
Remember when that was a good thing?
Very good point. If I were a voter in those states where certain candidates backed out I would take it that they didn't want to answer to me, and they surely wouldn't get my vote.
This whole thing is starting to really STINK. If these candidates don’t think debates are important, then forget them.
They aren’t worthy of anyone’s vote.
It looks like NO ONE read your post stating that it was RON PAUL who pulled out of the debate, NOT Santorum.
There were several different stories popping around the same time. The “Romney’s out of the debate, Santorum probably too” made the wires first, next it was “Romney and Paul, and now Santorum.” Who knows how this shook out. They all could have gotten together and leaked it around the same time.
From the article, CNN’s statement:
“Mitt Romney and Ron Paul told the Georgia Republican Party, Ohio Republican Party, and CNN Thursday that they will not participate in the March 1 Republican presidential primary debate,” CNN said in a statement. “Without full participation of all four candidates, CNN will not move forward with the Super Tuesday debate.”
Also, a quote from the Santorum camp:
“Santorum ‘has no plans of doing it right now,’ spokesman Hogan Gidley said of the March 1 debate.”
Don’t get me wrong, I don’t doubt you. It’s just that I’m pretty much stunned at how little it takes to get a large scale rant going when the facts aren’t even fully known.
My own opinion? The candidates have their hands full right before Super Tuesday. NY is a Super Tuesday state, and I haven’t heard anything about *anyone* coming here. There’s a lot of territory to cover, and to fly into Georgia just for a two hour debate probably won’t be worthwhile in the long run.
As another poster pointed out, Newt does have an opportunity to have a great debate performance on February 22nd. I don’t think he’s being shut out, by any means. There was a recent debate that Ron Paul passed up in order to campaign, so this is just another of those times when candidates are busy, IMO.
I saw that long list, too, but who has time to research it all. There is context to consider with most, if not all, of those items. One example: the DOD dropped research on predator drones from their budget, so Santorum got an earmark to pay for continued research. These drones have come in handy in the WOT, but he is stuck with a bad reputation because this was one of his earmarks.
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