No Edwards supporters outside debate

Congratulations to Rep. Ron Paul of Texas for getting invited to ABC's Republican presidential candidates debate up in New Hampshire. Rep. Dennis Kucinich of Ohio got excluded from the Democratic debate. We can't help but wonder how the ABC affiliate in Cleveland feels about this.

Thank goodness our ABC affiliate here in Durham demopnstrates fair-minded and even-handedness in covering government and politics. They would treat members of the U.S. House of Representatives just as fairly as members of the U.S. Senate in national political campaign news coverage.

I was astounded to experience the "ABC difference" as far as its Charlotte regional affiliate was concerned some years ago. After having run previously in a U.S. Senate primary only and having received a fair sprinkling of news coverage across North Carolina, I then experienced total exclusion in a U.S. House campaign on the next try when I was actually the Democratic Party nominee in the general election there in the 9th District around Charlotte.

Isn't veteran Ohio U.S. Rep. Dennis Kucinich entitled to the same type of news coverage and debate participation as the present and former members of the U.S. Senate (and the governor of New Mexico) in this excellent 2008 Democratic field?

When Charlie Gibson and Diane Sawyer came to Chapel Hill on a visit by ABC's "Good Morning America" crew a few years ago, they tossed out some plastic baseball for people in the crowd to catch. Charlie has a pretty dandy sidearm delivery and Diane can really put some mustard on her throws. Our advice to Congressman Kucinich in facing the ABC News pitching staff is to try to emulate Mickey Mantle and just make contact by laying down a bunt and trying to beat the throw to first base.

David P. McKnight
Durham

Is it news that there would be no Edwards supporters there? Who's surprised?

The REAL heresy is that Fauxnews may exclude Ron Paul from their Forum today, but we clearly expect Ron Paul to do VERY well in NH! And remember, Ron Paul is the ONLY candidate with a viable backup plan B, the LNC invitation to head the LP ticket if he so chooses later!!! HOW COOL IS THAT???

STRIVE to be SMARTER than a democrackkk!

Is the Edwards campaign well served by characterizing Sen. Hillary Clinton of New York as having no capacity to represent any "new directions" in Democratic Party politics? Is the Edwards campaign content to see the former North Carolina passed on the track by the senator from Illinois, Barack Obama, while continuing a dubious strategy of trying to link Sen. Clinton to the politics of a time gone by.

Despite her previous First Lady roles in the state of Arkansas and in Washington during Bill Clinton's governorship and presidency, Hillary Clinton would indeed be breaking new ground if elected to the White House as the Nation's first woman president. Likewise, in Illinois, Democrats raised in the vineyards of national Democratic politics as practiced by such visionary leaders as Gov. Adlai Stevenson (1949-1953), the Democratic presidential nominee in 1952 and 1956, nonetheless realize that the election of the first African-American President would also constitute a truly new development in this country's political history especially since the last canddiate from Illinois to reach the White House was prairie lawyer Abraham Lincoln.

The negative position toward Sen. Hillary Clinton's philosophical integrity may also have cost John Edwards the votes of many women in Iowa who did not intend to vote for Clinton in the first place. But in choosing their preferred candidate, they may have skipped over a campaign which may have presented itself as opposing a highly qualified female candidate for the presidency.

John Edwards has too much to offer the Nation as a presidential candidate in his own right to be confusing women voters and others with this inexplicable strategic decision to label Hillary Clinton as lacking in vision for the future of the country. His campaign ought to broaden its platform of leading domestic and foreign policy issues and advocate his own considerable qualifications for leading the country in the next four years.

David P. McKnight