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.