Posted on 01/04/2008 9:38:26 AM PST by CounterCounterCulture
NEW YORK—ABC News is eliminating Republican presidential candidate Duncan Hunter and Democrats Dennis Kucinich and Mike Gravel from its prime-time presidential debates Saturday night because they did not meet benchmarks for their support.
The Republican debate three days before the New Hampshire primary will include Iowa caucus winner Mike Huckabee, John McCain, Rudy Giuliani, Fred Thompson, Mitt Romney and Ron Paul. It starts at 7 p.m. EDT.
(Excerpt) Read more at mercurynews.com ...
“Hunter with the best qualifacations for President and the MSM has marginalized him from day one.”
At the very first debate Hunter got the least amount of time.
MSM spins the news to get us to vote their way, and now they are silencing the most conservative candidate.
I don’t want MSM to pick the candidates.
So, if you really want to screw them back, support Ron Paul...heheh.
Seriously.
Exactly!!
I guess the GOP isn’t the only organization in the process of jumping the shark.
I agree.
>George Bush got the support of the liberal media, not once but twice? Who knew?
Yes, but George Bush is not a conservative.
A number of things could use some clarification. According to this article
the debate participation criteria (ABC/WMUR) were established just last week. Duncan Hunter’s plans to ignore Iowa were probably made months ago. They are also using polls, but it’s hard to get recognized unless you appeal to KOOKS (L. Ron Paul), or use identity politics (The Huckster).
The New Hampshire Republican Party is a co-sponsor of the ABC/WMUR debate and the Fox News forum. In one story, they talked about pulling their sponsorship, but that’s not much leverage. The New Hampshire Republican Party and/or the RNC either do not have rules or chooses not to enforce them for debate participation. My guess is that they don’t have any rules. The only rule that might work is taking delegates away from candidates. Some of you may have better ideas. Most candidates, left to there own, would look at this as an opportunity for more face time and less competition. I’m not familiar with the details of Campaign Finance Reform, but Rush did say it would make the media more powerful, and it has.
On another thread, Duncan Hunter told us not to complain and work harder. I emailed a couple of complaints anyhow. If there is a consensus that we should continue to complain despite Mr. Hunter’s instructions, I’ll re-post the information and we can all raise hell. Dennis Kucinich filed a complaint with the FCC and I’m sure we could too. We can also place letters in the WMUR license renewal file. In my opinion, the ABC / WMUR debate is more important because of audience size. We could also make noise at Fox News.
At this point, I don’t know if Duncan Hunter underestimated the campaign landscape or is a brilliant strategist and tactician. Time will tell. I pray that it is the latter.
The GOP has drifted to the left because the leader of the party, President Bush, like his father before him is not a conservative. The only way to fix this is to raise a new crop of conservatives to get control of the GOP. That’s something that should interest Fredheads and all of FR. Third parties haven’t worked in the past and I don’t think that’s the answer now.
If you are a conservative party that believes in conservative principals why would you have your early primary contests in a relatively liberal state that allows independents to vote in your primary? A State party controlled debate is another good idea from this thread. Fixing campaign finance should be a high priority. I’m sure there are many other good ideas that Freepers can generate. The fact that conservatives are getting the shaft is not only money and media but also the party itself.
You make some good points. But fighting the east coast RINOS and MSM types is a little like fighting Jason or Michael Meyers. No matter how many times you kick them in the teeth and expose their agenda, they keep coming back to life, more resistent to conservatism each time.
“He should have ran for POTUS in 2000. He would have benefitted from the name-recognition and support from conservatives now.”
The fact that conservatives are not supporting him now tells me that many conservatives have lost their way. I think the Republican party need a tear down and a rebuilding.
Duh. Why would he? NH is RINO country.
Pissing my vote away is voting for anything but a Reaganite and Conservative. There is only one, and that is Hunter.
“I’m not familiar with the details of Campaign Finance Reform, but Rush did say it would make the media more powerful, and it has.”
Campaign Finance Reform took away some of our free speech. I’m not a backer of Newt Gingrich, but Campaign Finance Reform was why he didn’t run.
And here’s where I complained to ABC:
And here’s where I complained to Fox News:
Fox News: Phone: (212) 301-3000
also, yourcomments@foxnews.com
“..many conservatives have lost their way. ..”
I think it’s more that they don’t have the guts to support a true conservative, because MSM tells them it’s not possible for a true conservative to win.
Oh, so now their fave kook Ron Paul is back in but don’t dare let Duncan Hunter in! I’m more furious at the GOP and many conservatives for going along and playing this game. The disrespect shown Duncan Hunter is beyond acceptable and the party is done as far as I’m concerned if Hunter is out.
Which is exactly why Duncan Hunter is being deliberately silenced and excluded. Heck, they don’t even want to MENTION or show his name as candidate!
This election will change everything. We’re finding out some interesting things about our fellow ‘conservatives’. The GOP really is in a sad state and it dead with this election. Not gonna recover either.
Forget that. A new party may be needed. I’m no longer a Republican. And ‘conservative’ has different meanings.
They pretty much had to let Ron Paul in this debate since he met 2 out of 3 requirements (polling above 5% in NH or 5% nationally) and had nearly 3x the # of votes in Iowa as Guiliani (and you know they won’t leave him out) and was only 2.5-3% behind Thompson & McCain. Duncan Hunter is far and away the most conservative person out there but he got less than .5% which just shows what a sad state of affairs the RP is in.
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