There has been a campaign among liberal bloggers to protest having Fox News broadcast a Democratic debate in Nevada. While Fox has argued that this would allow Democrats to be seen by an audience who does not usually see them, past experience has shown that Fox uses such situations to attack Democrats. Kos has started the campaigns to see if they will particpate in this debate. John Edwards was the first to respond:
We will not be participating in the Fox debate. We’re going to make lots of appearances in Nevada, including debates. By the end of March, we will have attended three presidential forums in Nevada – and there are already at least three proposed Nevada debates. We’re definitely going to debate in Nevada, but we don’t see why this needs to be one of them.
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Good, now get Hillary and Obama to do the same thing.
Stupid move by John Edwards. Kos and MyDD and all of the rest are asinine, as usual. Fox hosted a couple of the presidential primary debates in 2004, and I didn’t hear any complaining by the “netroots” about it. Their coverage and hosting was no different than any of the other news organizations hosting the debates.
What Edwards just did was hand Nevada over to Richardson. If Fox doesn’t back down and Richardson attends, well, Edwards can just pack up and leave this state for all I care. And I’m a big supporter.
The netroots really needs to get a clue of what the hell they are talking about before they pull stupid stunts like this.
Oh, and “lots of appearances” in Nevada, Mr. Edwards, including “debates”? All of the other debates are in Vegas. Nevada isn’t just Las Vegas; Edwards needs to connect with the rurals and northern Nevadans.
Besides, Edwards NEEDS the media exposure, for he is not getting it (apart from the Coulter flap) from the mainstream media, so this turning down the Reno debate was such a monstrous blunder, somebody in his campaign should have been FIRED for suggesting he skip it.
Personal appearances are fine, but the airtime is critical. Edwards left a huge hole for Richardson to walk right through.
Stupid, John, stupid.
Fox used their debate coverage smear the Democrats and distort the postions they presented during the debate. Their coverage was hardly like that of other news organizations.
Edwards will be doing other campaigning in Nevada, and most likely he hopes that others will join him in not participating in this debate.
Besides, if worse comes to worse for Edwards over this its fine with me. While I give Edwards points for taking this stand, at the moment I’d probably choose Richardson over Edwards.
Also keep in mind that the Fox debate is in August. There are definately forums in Nevada closer to the caucuses and there will most likely also be debates there. Currently debates are being considered in Nevada for November and January with at least one to be covered by CNN. I doubt that missing a debate in August will matter.