Are the GOP Candidates Afraid of a Snowman?
One of the hottest stories in the blogosphere in recent weeks is the apparent reluctance of leading Republican presidential candidates to appear in a YouTube sponsored debate in September. As of now frontrunner Rudy Giuliani may be "bypassing" the event and Mitt Romney has cast aspersions on having to answer questions from a "snowman." PJM columnist Rick Moran has been on the phone polling the campaigns today on this developing story.
The controversy over Republican candidate participation in the YouTube debates scheduled for September 17 at the Mahaffey Theater in St. Petersburg, Florida appears to be building as several candidates declared their intention to participate while the two front runners remained cool to the idea.
A story in the Washington Post this morning suggested that “sources familiar” with the Giuliani campaign said that the GOP frontrunner was considering bypassing the debate. A spokesman for Governor Mitt Romney said that the campaign had received 7 debate invitations over an 11-day period in September and had not committed to any of them. Romney himself expressed some good natured skepticism with the YouTube format saying “I think the presidency ought to be held at a higher level than having to answer questions from a snowman,” referring to a questioner at the Democratic debates on Monday night who dressed as a snowman to ask about global warming.
Sam Feist of CNN said that as of this morning, only John McCain and Ron Paul had formally accepted invitations to the debate. Pajamas Media has learned that at least one other Republican candidate has since decided to attend.
Former Wisconsin Governor Tommy Thompson’s campaign announced his plans to participate in the debate. The Thompson campaign teased Mitt Romney in their statement confirming his participation in the debates saying “We’ll answer questions from any American who wants to ask one and that includes one dressed up like a snowman.”
“Mayor Giuliani and Senator McCain seem more interested in finding reasons to pass up opportunities to address Americans than finding opportunities to engage in debate,” said Steve Grubbs, Senior National Advisor for the Thompson Presidential campaign.
Lou Moore, National Campaign Manager for Ron Paul said he didn’t know whether it was “fear or ignorance” that would keep the frontrunners from the debate. “The American people deserve to hear from the candidates,” he said.
A spokesman for Fred Thompson told Pajamas Media that the former Senator would have no statement about participation in the debate because officially, he is not a candidate. Any public statement that would identify him as such would require him to file a report with the FEC and place restrictions on his fundraising ability.
Meanwhile, at least one GOP candidate didn’t receive their invitation to participate in the debate until today. A spokesperson in the Tom Tancredo campaign office told Pajamas Media that they were still mulling over the decision as to whether they will participate in the debate and had only received the formal request to appear at the event this morning.
Reached for comment late today, YouTube told Pajamas Media that they were “hopeful” all Republican candidates would participate in the event.
“The Democratic CNN/YouTube debate was a success and we have equally high expectations for the Republican CNN/YouTube Debate.”
Rick Moran blogs at Right Wing Nut House
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25 Comments
1. Sheryl:Update:
Romney is on CSPAN right now and took a YouTube question!
And he also said, due to his schedule, he will not make the CNN/YouTube debate.
Jul 27, 2007 - 2:58 pm 2. Sheryl:Mitt is doing great taking a lot of call in calls from the standard CSPAN format of calls from Republican, Democrat and Independent telephone lines.
He is very impressive in this format!
Jul 27, 2007 - 3:06 pm 3. Scott M.:What is the point of a Republican debate where all the questions are selected by liberals? The Republican base should set the agenda so they can get answers to questions important to them. This process is about which Republican candidate is to be chosen by the Republican voters. The libs will get their chance to snipe at our guys between the primary and general election.
Newt was right, our guys line up politely and then wait for the libs to finish carping at them. Is Chris Matthews going to grill our candidates on our issues? Mattehws will ask questions to answer the questions libs have about our guys. It’s not unfair for us to choose our candidate to fight them. We shouldn’t accept their ground rules to pick our candidate.
Jul 27, 2007 - 7:03 pm 4. Exurban Jon:It sounds like Romney is really spooked by the YouTube idea, which makes no sense to me at all. The unrehearsed format would seem to favor the well-prepared like Mitt and Rudy. As many others have said, if you’re afraid of a snowman, you don’t have a prayer against Al Qaeda.
Jul 27, 2007 - 7:09 pm 5. Matthew from Orlando, FL:What are they afraid of having to face a public that is becoming more informed and wants to know the truth?
Why don’t they tell us why they haven’t let the congress keep “We the people’s” money. Why are they letting the Federal Reserve to steal our money?
Why has this administration been eroding our freedoms Mr. Candidate; and will you continue you to respect its policies and deny we the people’s constitutional rights?
Give it to us straight if you can. Remember we can tell when you’re lying; you lips are moving.
Jul 27, 2007 - 9:36 pm 6. sheryl:Exurban Jon says:
“It sounds like Romney is really spooked by the YouTube idea”
It’s interesting, reading all the puffery today about how Mitt is some how afraid of YouTube and then I turn on CSPAN and there he is answering a YouTube question…NICE!
Classic….from a class guy!
Jul 27, 2007 - 10:11 pm 7. Stephen:What are they afraid of having to face a public that is becoming more informed and wants to know the truth?
Are these really the people getting through on the YouTube debate, though? Was the Snowman really someone “more informed” and “want[ing] to know the truth?” What about the guy in a black tanktop who brandished his rifle and called it his “baby”? Partisan sniping aside, those people on stage at that debate are educated adults, public servants, and it’s at least even money that one of them will be President of the United States. And CNN feeds them questions from a snowman and a guy with no shirt sleeves brandishing a gun? If CNN turned the Democratic YouTube debate into such a circus, what do you think they’ll do to the Republican debate?
While the idea is great in theory, you have to remember that the questions from the “informed public” are only as good as what the moderator (a left-leaning station with a financial incentive in making the debate outrageous) allows them to be. Can you really blame the candidates for thinking twice?
Jul 28, 2007 - 8:37 pm 8. juandos:You mean folks didn’t learn that the first CNN/YouTube debate was a less than pathetic joke?
Unbelievable!
Jul 29, 2007 - 6:30 am 9. Will:The GOP isn’t afraid of UTUBE.Why should they take questions from childish liberals in a setup…? It’s a circus and nothing more
Jul 29, 2007 - 10:24 am 10. RE:The ‘YouTube’ debate doesn’t rise to the level of seriousness befitting presidential debates. The GOP should just say ‘Grow Up’ to CNN and walk away from the buffoonery. It makes a laughingstock of the United States.
Jul 29, 2007 - 1:18 pm 11. Steve:Will: “The GOP isn’t afraid of UTUBE.Why should they take questions from childish liberals in a setup…? It’s a circus and nothing more”
LMAO! It’s ridiculously stupid statements like that which make us look completely out of touch.
Republicans don’t know how to use YouTube? Only “childish liberals” do? Too funny!
Stop complaining and pick up your damn camera and make a video!
Jul 29, 2007 - 2:29 pm 12. John:The democrats must be thinking make my day. All the pompous alibis being posted on this site for Giuliani and Romney ducking this are laughable. The questions are picked by liberals. It’s indecorous. They are all based on the premise that Americans are completely stupid and can’t see the obvious. The fact is anyone using the internet who has the mildest interest in politics is going to pick up on this and perceive that Romney and Giuliani are running for cover. Most of them are also going to realize why; fear of a question out of left field that creates a “macaca” moment. What are they going to make of a situation where a woman is willing to take questions from ordinary Americans, even a couple in funny suits, while America’s heroic mayor is not. If the GOP candidates think they are going to get through this campaign by limiting themselves to hand picked audiences like Bush does, they might as well concede to Hillary now.
Jul 29, 2007 - 2:34 pm 13. Carl:I think the republicans should insist that the YouTube debate be hosted by Fox News–Not CNN. If you remember, the democrats refused to go on a Fox News debate, so what is good for the goose is good for the gander. The democrats had the liberal CNN pick softballl questions for the democrats. It is only fair that the republicans let the republican friendly Fox News pick the YouTube questions as well. Republicans would be fools to let CNN pick questions because CNN will try to damage the republicans.
Jul 29, 2007 - 2:35 pm 14. Darrell B:I’m a little confused— the democratic candidates refuse to have a debate on FOX and nothing else needs to be said or questioned apparently. The republicans refuse to do the you-tube debate with questions from likely snowmen and that needs to be turned into some incredibly news-worthy story. What is the difference exactly?
Jul 29, 2007 - 3:47 pm 15. Voyager:Have any of you ever wandered through the YouTube comments sections? A pretty significant majority of the YouTube posters want anything even remotely conservative mounted on pikes, then lit on fire. Except for the radical Islamists, they love those guys; go jihad.
Might as well host a MoveOn.org debate. “So when did you stop eating babies?”
Jul 29, 2007 - 3:51 pm 16. PETE:Funny how the Liberals here ridicule Republicans and accuse them of being afriad for not going to the YouTube debate…………………but their tune was certainly different when the Democrats chose to avoid the FOX News debate.
Ah, hypocrisy.
Jul 29, 2007 - 4:17 pm 17. PRE:God forbid that they should lower themselves to the point of asking real questions from real people. I thought that they You Tube debate was great, unrehearsed, pointed and well moderated; breaking the boring mold of predictable questions that have been pre-screened by the candidated for them to provide their canned answers.
It’s not as if the liberal questions from You Tube are going to be better than the questions from the liberal media, but it does give us the chance to reach out to younger voters. It’s hypocritcal as well to criticize the democrats for avoiding Fox but then being afraid to address youth voters. We NEED these voters in the coming years, you know.
Jul 29, 2007 - 4:20 pm 18. freetoken:Most of the videos for these “debates” are pretty lame – have any of you watched them? For the Democrats there were quite a few whining for impeachment which CNN chose not to use – perhaps it would have been better if CNN actually picked a representative share of what was submitted.
Look at the latest entries intended for the Republicans:
Illegal prisons in the US:
http://jp.youtube.com/contests_layout?name=RepublicanDebate&v=viN7H-CbpQ8&goto=165
Time to get those nasty Israelis to follow the UN mandate:
http://jp.youtube.com/contests_layout?name=RepublicanDebate&v=FznyaT7UKXk&goto=166
What do the candidates have against poverty?
http://jp.youtube.com/contests_layout?name=RepublicanDebate&v=4WOprOkvCaE&goto=170
There are a few I’d like to see asked…
One that gets to the point that the candidates are all white guys:
http://jp.youtube.com/contests_layout?name=RepublicanDebate&v=w0jYpIntMVQ&goto=173
And one asking a sticky Mormon question for Romney:
Jul 29, 2007 - 5:06 pm 19. R. Pence:http://jp.youtube.com/contests_layout?name=RepublicanDebate&v=gJbgN6aeLB0&goto=177
Those who choose to run for President are also choosing to do all sorts of uncomfortable, potentially embarrassing, and often childish things in public.
The YouTube debates are far less ridiculous than lots of activities I’ve seen candidates participate in over my 43 years.
Rudy and Mitt’s scheduling conflicts are a big fat lies. Sort of like when you ask someone out for a date and the person says he/she’s too busy. BS! If people want to do something they’ll make time.
We’ll see if the general public sides with the GOP if they keep using the Dems’ refusal to do FOX News, and if they keep claiming potential victimization at the hands of the “liberal” question-choosers.
Those of you who are creating scenarios of evil liberal newscasters conspiring with YouTube questioners to bring down the GOP contenders really don’t realize how immature and silly you sound, do you? Get over yourselves. You and your boys aren’t victims. If anything, a YouTube debate would increase your standing in the general public’s eyes. Maybe you haven’t noticed, but people aren’t exactly wild about you these days, especially young people.
(And if you think Freddy the Freeloader is going to change that, think again.)
Jul 29, 2007 - 9:04 pm 20. Mad Jayhawk:Romney showed a lot of courage in refusing to ‘debate’ in this format. The questions, of course, are not really from the people but from CNN who cherry picks the questions from submissions. With a lot of submissions they can direct the ‘debate’ in any direction they want to.
These are not debates. It is just another media driven event that candidates have to submit to. The candidates will end up answering the same questions they answered that morning and the day before and the week before.
Jul 29, 2007 - 9:32 pm 21. Jeff Jaworski:Well what are the democrats afraid of Fox news for ?
Jul 30, 2007 - 3:28 am 22. Tim Maitski:Probably the fact there will be no snowman questions there .They will deal with real world issues not Democrat fantasies
I can see why Giuliani wouldn’t want to participate. Just do a search on YouTube on his name and see what comes up. A video of him dressed up as a women with Donald Trump making a pass at him. I don’t know how much more foolish he could look. The majority of other videos of him are pretty negative. But if you can’t face these things head on I don’t think you have any business running for president.
Jul 30, 2007 - 9:52 am 23. bill:Republicans afraid of youtube?…hardly,they are smart enough to recognize a setup when they see one. Newt called this one right, why give CNN a chance to make an asses out of the GOP runners?
Jul 30, 2007 - 11:31 pm 24. Mark:Have ya’ll heard of “I won’t dignify that question with an answer.”?
I’m thankful someone refuses this stupid ass
game show crap. And these people can actually speak the language as well.
I’ll take Surrender for $400 please…..
Jul 31, 2007 - 10:21 pm 25. Will:They aren’t afraid!!!!!!!!!!!!They just aren’t children.
Aug 1, 2007 - 12:07 pm