Romney and Santorum to skip March 1 debate (update: Paul declines too, event cancelled)

[Dutch]

The trouble is, Newt will lie, and call facts lies, and he gets away with it. You can't debate someone like that.
As long as he's allowed to do that, I hope there's not going to be a head to head debate...

 

[dskalkowski]

Probably cancelled.

 

[DEGuy]

It's not like there was a lot of "debating" going on at these media events anyhow.

 

[carterm]

the march 5 one was cancelled too.

 

[Aratus]

if it goes on and they zap mitt romney
for being a concieted 'no show' there is
an advantage to getting more airtime for
newt + ron at mitt's expense. its happening

 

[sailingaway]

The trouble is, Newt will lie, and call facts lies, and he gets away with it. You can't debate someone like that.
As long as he's allowed to do that, I hope there's not going to be a head to head debate...

exactly, he'll just look disbelieving and call a fact a lie, or make something up entirely to counter it.

 

[pauliticalfan]

They'll probably cancel it. No reason we can't request an hour-long interview or something (NOT with scumbag Piers Morgan).

 

[thoughtomator]

One on one it will be easy for Paul to expose how ungrounded Gingrich is.

 

[kathy88]

There's no way they are going to let Ron have a one on one with anybody. Good as cancelled. Mitt's a woos.

 

[Beorn]

One wonders if this was orchestrated between Rick and Mitt. Both have little to gain from a debate and they both eliminate the risk of a Newt surge.

 

[skytoucher]

Cancelled for the exact same reason that it's a four man race to the end.

 

[Aratus]

if newt holds back slightly and tries to slam mitt hard knowing that
the virginia ballot has only two names on supertuesday, if he needs
to pull himself back up above rick santorum, can he pass this up???

 

[skytoucher]

There's no way in the world you'll get to see Ron Paul in a 1 on 1 debate shown on MSM. They aren't that stupid.

 

[pauliticalfan]

WTF!? CNN SAYING RON PAUL DECLINED DEBATE INVITE.

http://politicalticker.blogs.cnn.com/2012/02/16/romney-paul-decline-debate-invite/

"Mitt Romney and Ron Paul told the Georgia Republican Party, Ohio Republican Party and CNN Thursday that they will not participate in the March 1 Republican presidential primary debate," CNN said in a statement. "Without full participation of all four candidates, CNN will not move forward with the Super Tuesday debate. However, next week, CNN and the Arizona Republican Party will host all four leading contenders for the GOP nomination. That debate will be held in Mesa, Arizona on February 22 and will be moderated by CNN's John King."

 

[pauliticalfan]

We need to get to the bottom of this...

 

[goldpants]

???

Me no likey

 

[sailingaway]

We need to get to the bottom of this...

I'm sure we'll find out. Maybe Ron knew Mitt and Santorum weren't going to, which is how we first heard it, and I agree there isn't much reason in that case. Maybe Ron needs to be somewhere campaigning.

 

[Margo37]

(OOOPS)

 

[Maximus]

Gingrich did a debate with Cain didn't he? He's looking for all the attention he can get. Maybe they'll do an online stream only. I don't get why Romney backed out of this...

 

[pauliticalfan]

Well, we really can't afford to not have a debate if we can avoid it. I have no clue what the thought process behind opting out of the debate was.