I will be blogging about the Republican All-American Forums Debate tonight on PBS.
Right out of the box, I must say that I'm pretty proud of the six candidates who showed up: Brownback, Huckabee, Hunter, Keyes, Paul, and Tancredo. Nice job. When a candidate is invited to a forum which is broadcast nationally on television, they should show up, whether they think they will earn the votes of the attendees or not. You have an obligation - to all voters in America - to talk to them and to listen to them. Shame on those candidates who didn't show up.
I called into "Finneran's Forum" last week when he was complaining about Romney not going to this debate. I gave him two examples about why this was a stupid move, including the fact that blacks do vote for Republicans. Not in huge amounts. But they do vote for Republicans. I noted that during the 2002 campaign, I was shocked one night when I was walking down Centre Street in Jamaica Plain and I saw a bunch of black folks pounding the phones in a small storefront with Romney/Healey signs. Later, after the election, I went back and looked at the returns in Roxbury and was shocked to see how high the numbers were for Romney there. The point? Blacks don't just vote for Democrats. There are conservative blacks. In a tight race in Ohio, Florida, or Arkansas, how many of those votes are the difference between winning and losing? The frontrunners - Romney, Giuliani, McCain and Thompson - were stupid to not show up for this debate.
Second, during the introductions, Rep. Ron Paul got the loudest cheers, easily twice as loud as the other candidates. Former Gov. Mike Huckabee also received loud cheers. Rep. Tom Tancredo gets a jab in during the first question, noting that he was the only Republican to show up NAACP debate.
Update
Here is an update on the Daily Kos debate poll, with more than 8,600 votes cast: Edwards 31, Obama 20, Clinton 13, Kucinich 7, None of the above 6, Dodd 5, Biden 4, More than one of the above 4, Gravel 3, and Richardson 3.
Right out of the box, I must say that I'm pretty proud of the six candidates who showed up: Brownback, Huckabee, Hunter, Keyes, Paul, and Tancredo. Nice job. When a candidate is invited to a forum which is broadcast nationally on television, they should show up, whether they think they will earn the votes of the attendees or not. You have an obligation - to all voters in America - to talk to them and to listen to them. Shame on those candidates who didn't show up.
I called into "Finneran's Forum" last week when he was complaining about Romney not going to this debate. I gave him two examples about why this was a stupid move, including the fact that blacks do vote for Republicans. Not in huge amounts. But they do vote for Republicans. I noted that during the 2002 campaign, I was shocked one night when I was walking down Centre Street in Jamaica Plain and I saw a bunch of black folks pounding the phones in a small storefront with Romney/Healey signs. Later, after the election, I went back and looked at the returns in Roxbury and was shocked to see how high the numbers were for Romney there. The point? Blacks don't just vote for Democrats. There are conservative blacks. In a tight race in Ohio, Florida, or Arkansas, how many of those votes are the difference between winning and losing? The frontrunners - Romney, Giuliani, McCain and Thompson - were stupid to not show up for this debate.
Second, during the introductions, Rep. Ron Paul got the loudest cheers, easily twice as loud as the other candidates. Former Gov. Mike Huckabee also received loud cheers. Rep. Tom Tancredo gets a jab in during the first question, noting that he was the only Republican to show up NAACP debate.
Update
Here is an update on the Daily Kos debate poll, with more than 8,600 votes cast: Edwards 31, Obama 20, Clinton 13, Kucinich 7, None of the above 6, Dodd 5, Biden 4, More than one of the above 4, Gravel 3, and Richardson 3.
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