Friday, September 28, 2007

Top 4 GOP Candidates Criticized for not Attending Minority Debate


Last night historically black Morgan State University held a debate for the Republican candidates to speak on issues affecting minorities. Absent from the PBS aired debate were the top 4 leading GOP candidates: Rudy Giuliani, Fred Thompson, John McCain and Mitt Romney. All used the typical “scheduling conflict” excuse to skip the event. The event coordinators left the 4 empty podiums up (see picture above) for these candidates, which I think sent a powerful message.

Fortunately, the six other candidates, as well as past election candidate Alan Keyes attended. This gave a more exclusive opportunity to hear the “lower tier” candidates’ views on issues like illegal immigration, the war in Iraq, minority unemployment rates and their position on capital punishment.

All the participants expressed their embarrassment for the party and the candidates that did not show. Even soon to be decided presidential hopeful Newt Gingrich remarked that it was a mistake for them not to attend.

Why do you think the top tier GOP candidates did not attend? Was it intentional or do you really think all of them had better things to do than participate on a national forum? If so, maybe they should get their priorities straight.

Read the full article here.

Anay Shah

Blog Editor

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

The decision not to attend was clearly intentional, and not due to unresolvable scheduling conflicts. That said, I don't think it is entirely unreasonable for top tier candidates to avoid events where they may be ambushed or simply can't get their message out. I think this is a two way street. We have to reach out to the candidates and make it clear that even if there may be some disagreements, we are open to listening. I believe that USINPAC has done a good job so far reaching out in a bipartisan way, but I am not so sure Republicans have responded in kind.

Anonymous said...

I heard Romney was very ill this week and had to cancel other events as well. McCain was also the only gop candidate willing to participate in the univision debate.

Race relations weren't that great for Giuliani when he was mayor- http://www.nytimes.com/2007/07/22/us/politics/22giuliani.html?_r=1&ex=1185768000&en=75402ea954f56831&ei=5070&emc=eta1&oref=slogin

And who knows what Thompson's strategy is...