On Friday, when Rudy Giuliani’s and Mitt Romney’s presidential campaigns declined CNN’s invitation to participate in the upcoming YouTube debate, they explained that they’d just love to be there, but gosh darn it, they have scheduling difficulties.
Sure, they hate the way questions will be presented to the candidates, but that’s irrelevant, they said. As Romney’s spokesperson told the NYT, the campaign’s decision not to participate was “not a question of format, it’s a question of our travel schedule.”
Fine, CNN said. The debate will be rescheduled to accommodate the candidates’ calendars.
ThinkProgress spoke with the [Ron] Paul campaign today, who confirmed that CNN contacted them and said that it is rescheduling the debate. The campaign said that it believes it was done to accommodate the schedules of the other candidates. Earlier today, the New York Times reported that CNN “said it would work with the campaigns to find a new date.”
It’s unclear whether the other candidates will actually participate in the rescheduled debate.
I’m going to go out on a limb here and predict that no matter what they new date is, Romney and Giuliani will still have “scheduling conflicts.” Call it a hunch.
