Last week at Morgan State University in Baltimore, Maryland, several GOP presidential contenders participated in yet another debate. Aired on PBS and hosted by Tavis Smiley, the event was hailed as a “black issues debate.”
However, the four frontrunners-former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani, former Tennessee Sen. Fred Thompson, Arizona Sen. John McCain and former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney-were no-shows, claiming scheduling conflicts prevented them from attending the debate at the historically black university.
Former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee said he was “embarrassed for our party, and I’m embarrassed for those who didn’t come because there’s long been a divide in this country. And it doesn’t get better when we don’t show up.”
The debate comes after Univision, a Spanish-language network, canceled a Republican debate in which only McCain agreed to participate.
All the leading Democratic candidates participated in a Univision debate this month, and all appeared at the first All-American Presidential Forum, which was held in June at Howard University in Washington.
Smiley, who moderated both PBS forums, said at the outset, “Some of the campaigns who declined our invitations to join us tonight have suggested publicly that this audience would be hostile and unreceptive. Since we are live on PBS right now, I can’t tell you what I really think of these kinds of comments.”
Republicans in general were split about the debate, with some defending the actions of the absent candidates.
For example, Pat Buchanan made a pragmatic political case in defense of the Republican candidates’ decision. He was not alone in arguing that at this stage of the campaign it is more important to go after the conventional base than people who tend to vote Democratic anyway.
Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich, who is considering joining the race for the GOP nomination, called the decision to avoid the event an “enormous error” and “fundamentally wrong,” saying the scheduling excuses were “baloney.”
“Fortunately, there are those in the Republican Party who do understand the importance of reaching out to people of color,” said Smiley, who thanked the six other candidates for attending.
Besides Huckabee, the other candidates who participated were Reps. Duncan Hunter of California, Ron Paul of Texas and Tom Tancredo of Colorado, Sen. Sam Brownback of Kansas, and conservative activist Alan Keyes.