Any candidate, Perry, Romney, Santorum - whoever - who is not physically present with the rest gets a perception as “less than” the others who are there.
I’m not sure how to put my “feeling” into words; but I bet a dollar that every political geek worth his salt would never allow such a thing for his candidate.
But, I could be wrong.
I can’t believe that a few hours of absence is going to make a big difference to the wildfires or the firefighters. The governor is not needed there to make every decision and shouldn’t try to make it seem that way (like the pathetic-looking Junior Obimbo sitting behind his “President of the US” plaque at the Hurricane Center).
My perception is that he doesn’t think he will do well in the debates, so he’d rather just find an excuse not to be there. And rightly or wrongly, I think this will be the perception of many other people, too. (I think he could “attend” remotely via technology, which is the way many people attend board meetings, etc., but I think he really just doesn’t want to attend at all.)