For reasons that I’ve never fully understood, the Congressional Black Caucus Institute ignored concerns and decided to partner with the Fox News Channel for a Democratic presidential candidates’ debate. The consequences were swift — five candidates (Clinton, Edwards, Obama, Dodd, and Richardson) all announced they would skip the event to avoid legitimizing a partisan propaganda outlet. Thanks to concerns from Howard Dean, the Democratic National Committee said it could endorse an event co-sponsored by the GOP’s network.
As of this morning, officials said the event may be “postponed” due to “scheduling difficulties.” Rep. Bennie Thompson (D-Miss.), who chairs the CBC Institute, said it had nothing to do with candidates avoiding his event like the plague, and everything to do with the fact that “logistics” became awkward in light of the “overwhelming number of party presidential debates.”
By this afternoon, the event was scrapped altogether.
Fox News and a black political group say they will not hold a Sept. 23 Democratic presidential debate in Detroit, which the leading candidates already were planning to skip. […]
“Revisiting the CBC Institute’s debate schedule will allow the time necessary to complete all debate logistics in an effective manner,” [Thompson] said. The group had said it planned to sponsor two Democratic and two Republican presidential debates.
Due respect, congressman, logistics aren’t the problem. You can revisit the debate schedule as long as you’d like, but unless Fox News decides to become a legitimate news outlet, candidates won’t show up for the event.
The netroots worked awfully hard on this; the result is encouraging.