One Down...

By: Chris Guy
Published On: 3/7/2007 12:45:35 AM

My hat's off to the Edwards campaign for finally taking a stand against the pitiful decision by certain Democrats to team with Fox News for an upcoming debate in Nevada. Edwards' deputy campaign manager, Jonathan Prince, sent this email to Markos at DailyKos earlier this evening:
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.

Barack Obama has been giving Fox News the cold shoulder for several weeks now for their "madrassa" smear against him, but no word yet on whether or not he'll attend the debate. This situation really screws Obama because if he skips the debate, it'll be the second major candidate forum in Nevada that he's missed. If he skips this debate, Nevadans might take offense to it. If decides to attend, the already ugly Edwards-Obama flame wars will get even worse. So he basically can't win.

(UPDATE:) Tom Collins, the Nevada Democratic Party Chairman, has come up with his own version of a compromise on the issue. They're going to have one representative from a local Air America affiliate join the panel next to three Fox News personalities. So, in other words, 3-1 is supposed to balance the whole thing out. Yeah, that's the Fox News line of thinking for you. Kind of like an episode of Fox News Sunday where Joe Lieberman and a Republican "debate" the Iraq War.

Hopefully one of the questions from the Air America panelist will be, "Why the hell are you having a debate on Fox News?!"

Comments



How about this idea (pitin - 3/7/2007 2:00:54 AM)
They all boycott this horrible decision, and embarrass Faux News into canceling the debate.


Obama-Edwards flame wars? (Hugo Estrada - 3/7/2007 11:28:46 AM)
Boy, do I miss stuff. Why are they fighting? Where are they fighting?


You name it (Chris Guy - 3/7/2007 5:35:02 PM)
There's almost an even split among the blogosphere between the two in terms of support.

Obama supporters have jumped on Edwards's extravagent new home in NC. Edwards people have played the "coke-head" card.

The bad news for Obama is this...both Hillary and Edwards see him as their no. 1 obstacle. He may as well be the frontrunner in that respect.



Good call, Pitin (AnonymousIsAWoman - 3/7/2007 12:53:14 PM)
All the candidates, in a show of solidarity, should boycott the Fox debates.  Every time they appear on Fox on a talk show or other planned event, they give legitimacy to Fox News, which is not fair, balanced, or even accurate in its coverage.  By boycotting they give lie to Fox's claims to be a genuine news station.  Fox is nothing more than agit-prop for the right.


How about... (Tom Joad (Kevin) - 3/7/2007 1:52:23 PM)
instead of attending the Fox debate in Nevada, Obama makes his way to another part of the state and holds some sort of rally or function? That's a third option Chris. Just as long as it's not at the Bunny Ranch.


True (Chris Guy - 3/7/2007 5:35:51 PM)
I could see something like that happening.


Fox News viewership (vadem - 3/8/2007 10:59:14 PM)
While I don't dispute at all the nasty nature of the vast majority of Fox News personalities when they feel they can make their Democratic guest squirm, one thing to keep in mind about their viewership is that it is not all right-wing GOPers.  I read statistics tonight, albeit from 2004 since that's the latest I saw, that 21% of viewers are Democrats, another 22% are Independents. 

That's no small chunk of society to dismiss.  Why not try to educate the remainder and bring over the moderate Republicans--some of whom certainly voted for Webb--rather than turn your nose up at them?  Our fearless Senator appeared on Fox yesterday and came away with a smackdown of Neil Cavuto.  I think we should come back again and again. Don't back down.