Values Voters, Not Snowmen
Republican presidential candidates Mike Huckabee, Sam Brownback, Duncan Hunter, Tom Tancredo, and Ron Paul will participate tonight in the "Values Voters Presidential Debate" tonight at 6 pm Eastern(though the website live stream says they start at 7:30) in Ft. Lauderdale, Florida. Tonight once was the scheduled date for the Republican version of the CNN/YouTube debate. That debate has been rescheduled to November 28.
In spite of their widely being regarded as a core GOP activist bloc, the "values voters" are being snubbed by leading contenders Rudy Giuliani, Fred Thompson, Mitt Romney, and John McCain. "Scheduling conflicts" are cited by the campaigns, but scheduling is a question of campaign priorities. Moderator Joseph Farah puts it this way:
"There seems to be a concerted effort to dodge the agenda of the pro-family movement," he says. "Some of the front-running candidates have less than a stellar record of voting and governing on those issues."
While top Democratic candidates have participated in debates and forums sponsored by the Human Rights Campaign (HRC), YearlyKos (bloggers/netroots), the AFL-CIO, Univision (Hispanic), as well as the YouTube debate and the Yahoo-Huffington Post Mashup, top tier GOP candidates have declined Univision, HRC, and, most recently, the African-American issues centered debate sponsored by PBS and moderated by Tavis Smiley (scheduled for September 27 at Morgan State University).
Fred Thompson is the only leading candidate of either party who has yet to participate in any debate or forum.
Update [2007-9-17 17:35:8 by Ross Smith]: First Read reports about Fred's debate debut and October debate schedule:
All of his Republican foes have been anxiously awaiting a chance to debate Fred Thompson. Well, on Oct. 9th in Dearborn, Mich., they'll get their first shot. Thompson's campaign announced today their October debate schedule. The first one the campaign has committed to attend: the CNBC/MSNBC/Wall Street Journal debate which is being organized in conjunction with the Michigan Republican Party. The other two October debates Thompson has committed to are in Manchester, N.H., on Oct. 14th (WMUR-ABC) and Orlando, Fla. (Fox News) on Oct. 21st.
