The Casey campaign has apparently agreed to two debates -- one in Philadelphia on October 16 and one October 12 in Pittsburgh. This information by way of the Philadelphia Inquirer and KDKA, respectively. I assume that someone will take care of getting directions to those locations to Larry Smar, since Casey apparently doesn't know where they are.
Okay, snark aside, it is good to finally see Casey agree to face off with Santorum. Doubtless his shrinking lead in the polls has something to do with his sudden willingness to schedule the debates. [UPDATE: Larry Smar responded to this post with the following statement, accusing the Senator of dragging his feet on setting the debate dates: "for the record on your previous post, we’ve been talking to debate organizers throughout the summer. Santorum has dragged his feet on agreeing to dates."]
The two candidates have also scheduled joint appearances on Meet the Press and KYW Radio in Philadelphia, but those are not debates. The MTP joint appearance might work out to 14 minutes, and that's not including Russert's lame, long-winded, self-promoting questions. The Philadelphia date is something of a debate-lite -- it is only an hour long. Barely time to scratch the surface. But, with the Pittsburgh face-off within the week (no word on the length) and the hope for at least two more real debates (Smar, Casey's campaign chief, promised that Casey will agree to more debates), if they aren't repetitive in subject matter, enough of the key issues could be covered.
None of the reports mention the Green candidate. By the time of these debates, the Democrat's attempt to oust the Green Party candidate from the ballot should have been decided. At that point, assumin g he is still on the ballot,we would expect to see him invited to attend. It is less than certain that the issue will be resolved before the September 3 Meet the Press date. Repeated inquiries to MTP about Romanelli's participation on that program have gone unanswered.
[UPDATE: I just saw this much better coverage of the same issue by 2 Political Junkies. Nice job, there.]
Okay, snark aside, it is good to finally see Casey agree to face off with Santorum. Doubtless his shrinking lead in the polls has something to do with his sudden willingness to schedule the debates. [UPDATE: Larry Smar responded to this post with the following statement, accusing the Senator of dragging his feet on setting the debate dates: "for the record on your previous post, we’ve been talking to debate organizers throughout the summer. Santorum has dragged his feet on agreeing to dates."]
The two candidates have also scheduled joint appearances on Meet the Press and KYW Radio in Philadelphia, but those are not debates. The MTP joint appearance might work out to 14 minutes, and that's not including Russert's lame, long-winded, self-promoting questions. The Philadelphia date is something of a debate-lite -- it is only an hour long. Barely time to scratch the surface. But, with the Pittsburgh face-off within the week (no word on the length) and the hope for at least two more real debates (Smar, Casey's campaign chief, promised that Casey will agree to more debates), if they aren't repetitive in subject matter, enough of the key issues could be covered.
None of the reports mention the Green candidate. By the time of these debates, the Democrat's attempt to oust the Green Party candidate from the ballot should have been decided. At that point, assumin g he is still on the ballot,we would expect to see him invited to attend. It is less than certain that the issue will be resolved before the September 3 Meet the Press date. Repeated inquiries to MTP about Romanelli's participation on that program have gone unanswered.
[UPDATE: I just saw this much better coverage of the same issue by 2 Political Junkies. Nice job, there.]
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