NEWS: Why The Leading GOP Candidates Are Chickenshits

POLITICS: Why The Leading GOP Candidates Are Chickenshits

Republican candidates are bailing out of the September 17th CNN/YouTube debate. They have come up with several reasons.

What presidential candidate would turn down a nationally televised debate in order to make a couple of bucks? Attending fundraisers is a ridiculous justification to pass on a major chance to differentiate themselves from the other candidates. These excuses are obviously a load of bullshit, as are the many other reasons Republicans are attempting to create. There is also the "snowman" excuse.

And the "CNN is liberal" excuse.

More excuses will surely follow, but the real reason leading Republicans will not take part in the debate is that they are scared. Little girl scared. The leading GOP candidates have baggage and they aren't used to direct questions. The mainstream media, like CNN, would never allow their anchors to ask harsh questions, but this format has given the network the ability to be very direct. Our current crop of news reporters shy away from asking tough questions because they are so frightened of being labeled “liberal” by the right. Some random guy in Utah isn’t. That is what frightens the Giuliani’s of the world.

What kind of questions are the candidates afraid of? How about these: Mitt Romney, why did you change your stance on so many subjects, like abortion, right before you ran for president? Rudy Giuliani, you didn’t buy new radios for the NYFD for ten years, even though a report on the 1993 WTC attacks said it was the first thing that should be done. It led to the death of over 300 firefighters. Why didn’t you buy the radios? (Imagine that one from a firefighter) Ron Paul, why did you allow a racist newsletter to be published in your name for ten years? John McCain, why were you not sure that condoms helped to prevent AIDS when question about it just three months ago?

These are just simple questions off the top of my head; imagine what could be done with a little research? The Republicans candidates are carrying a shitload of baggage and the common man is jumping at the chance to expose it. Here are some of the questions to date.













If you watch the questions people have posted on YouTube, you will become sad because of the high percentage of idiots. They are sometimes scary, sometimes ridiculous, but most often just pathetic. It is the few who present a well-crafted, thoughtful and direct question that scare the shit out of the GOP.

CNN is now attempting to reschedule the debate to work around the Giuliani and Romney fundraising conflicts and Republican bloggers are trying to pressure the two camps to attend. But the new Bush Republican Party is based on denial, suppression of evidence and bullying the media, which means that unpredictable questions could cause a lot of damage. Add to that the fact that the Republican right wing is far scarier than the Democratic left wing due to religious fundamentalism and I wouldn’t expect any of the leading candidates to show up for the YouTube debate. Did I mention that they are chickenshits?

Unfortunately, the fact that a lot of Republican candidates are stonewalling this "innovation" is something that isn't going to resonate with a lot of voters, and certainly not voters on the right.

Good article, FTR.

I completely agree with you. The Democrats are willing to have good, tough questions asked of them but I guess the Republican party doesn't know how to handle themselves well enough.

Don't leave your bubble if you live in a glass house.

The good news is that they can no longer give Democrats shit about not appearing in the Fox News debates.

Which was actually bullshit too, in my opinion, but hey, no one asked me.

Is this really anything new? A political party not attending a debate? Seems something like this happened in the not so distant past. Sadly, it's not just the GOP.

That these candidates, both Republican and Democrat, are the best this country has to offer it's citizens saddens me greatly.

Why should republican candidates waste their time on people who aren't going to vote for them anyways?

Raise money from the people who you know are going to vote for you to convince the people who are on the fence. Youtube's prime demographic is younger people. Thus, they can be safely ignored, because we don't really vote anyways, statistically speaking

Let them not show up, more time for the others to talk

Yeah, we definately broke even.

Obama wants a dialogue with our enemies, but is afraid of the Fox News debate. He can talk to Chavez but not say Hannity.

Perhaps by then the elections will already be called off?

Nothing that you said here makes sense in relation to the article written. It's not being broadcast on You Tube. It's being broadcast on CNN. Do you think all CNN viewers are in their 20's?

umm no they are far from the best, anyone who thinks the politicians of their country are the best, brightest, most able-bodied and fit for the job that their country has to offer is just naive. They are simply the ones who know the right people and shake the right hands... Otherwise we would have elections where people didnt use the phrase "lesser of two evils" when selecting a candidate

This is a completely retarded parallel to draw.

Fox repeatedly and often lies about Democrats. The network is a propaganda arm of the White House. It is as far from a legitimate news source as can be. The Dems are freezing Fox News out to show them to be illigetimate news source that they are. It is a sound policy.

CNN is not the same thing as Fox. At all. It may not be the best news channel in the world, but at least it is not cartoonishly ridliculous.

You Tube is a forum for common Americans to ask questions.

Had the Republicans refused to participate in a Daily Kos debate you might have an argument. They have not, which makes your argument rather ignorant.

On the other hand, the Democrat "YouTube debate" skewed much younger than debates usually do.

Presumably he's referring to the persistent myth that Bush declared dictatorship a couple months back with his executive order NSPD 51/HSPD 20.

I can't help but think of a line from the movie "Nixon" when I see this; "He's asking negro questions!"

Sure they're cowards, but it would take a pretty massive leap for the GOP to get involved in a situation they couldn't control down to the molecular bonds.

Yes.

Where are you going with that?

Très amusant.

He's just fucking around. He's made the same comment in about 10 threads.

whats the fun in informed commentary? lets just go with our gut feelings. and wrassle!

Only if we can also make thinly-veiled homophobic innuendos whenever someone rightly and disinterestedly calls us out for making asses of ourselves.

so butch!

Obviously he likes his leather.