Refuses to Debate in Open Format. Can’t Boulder Liberal Udall Think On His Feet?
Boulder Liberal Mark Udall revealed his inherent weakness as a candidate this week by refusing to debate Bob Schaffer in unstructured, open format debates.
After stonewalling for more than a month on responding to Bob Schaffer’s May 9 challenge to have seven “Lincoln Douglas” debates around the state this summer, Boulder Liberal Udall’s campaign was intimidated by a Denver reporter inquiring about their stall tactics. Boulder Liberal Udall was finally forced to accept two debate offers from the Southeast Business Partnership for Monday, July 14 and a debate to be taped on Thursday, August 14 and aired on Friday, August 15 sponsored by KBDI-TV Channel 12, KCNC-TV Channel 4, and the Rocky Mountain News.
But far more revealing are the summer debates formally rejected by Boulder Liberal Udall.
Aaron Harber and Adam Schrager, two of the most respected journalists in Colorado, both offered to host and moderate televised debates between the two candidates that would be unstructured to allow the candidates to directly engage each other on the issues. Boulder Liberal Udall refuses to accept the offers of these two inherently fair-minded journalists.
So just what is Boulder Liberal Udall afraid of? Is Boulder Liberal Udall afraid he can’t compete with Bob Schaffer in such an open format? Is Boulder Liberal Udall incapable of thinking on his feet? Does he have to be totally scripted to somehow defend his ten years of liberal votes in Congress?
I suppose we shouldn’t be too surprised by Boulder Liberal Udall’s cowardice. If you had voted to kill domestic energy production and drive up the cost of gasoline along with introducing something as wacky as the Kucinich-Udall Department of Peace bill, you might run from debates as well.
Letter to Udall 5-9-08 (PDF)
Rocky Mountain News Editorial 5-18-08 (PDF)
Bob Schaffer Lincoln Douglas Press Release (PDF)
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