A POTENTIALLY AWKWARD MOVE. I'd like to revise and extend my remarks on John Edwards and the Nevada Fox News debate, as I've just received new information that casts Edwards' decision in a rather different light.
Later this week, the Congressional Black Caucus Political Education and Leadership Institute plans to announce two debates in concert with Fox News, according to a source familiar with the negotiations, which have apparently been going on for weeks. The CBC Institute previously worked with Fox on a 2003 Democratic presidential primary debate in Baltimore.
"Both CNN and Fox have presented the Institute with two great proposals and at some point in the coming days we will be making an announcement," she said Candice Tolliver, a consultant working with the CBC Institute on the debates, adding that the Institute's plans are not final.
If the CBC Institute does go forward with Fox News, it will mean a couple of things:
First, while MoveOn and the netroots can go after the Nevada Democratic Party without alienating anyone except Nevada Democrats (one of whom, it should be noted, is the Senate Majority Leader), it is going to be much harder for the largely white netroots to go after the CBC Institute for its debate partner without setting up a very unpleasant intra-party clash between constituency groups, thereby bringing smiles of delight to Fox News and its viewers.
Second, no further candidates will drop out of the Nevada debate for the time being, at the risk of alienating the CBC Institute and losing access to its debates, and to audiences of black voters who will be electoral heavy-weights in the primaries.
And, third -- and again, this is if the CBC Institute picks Fox -- either Edwards has now shut himself out of the CBC Institute debates, one of which will likely target a Southern audience he needs, or he will have to reverse course on his decision to avoid Fox News debates this cycle.
All this, of course, is contigent on the final CBC Institute decision and announcement. It does, however, explain why the other Democratic presidential candidates have yet to announce their decisions about the Nevada debate, and instead said they will decide within a few days. It's not that they are slow or afraid of being leaders. They've been waiting for the CBC Institute to make its final decisions and announcement before giving a public answer to the netroots, in order to avoid alienating allies.
UPDATE: Well, that was ahead of schedule: Daily Kos takes on the CBC.
--Garance Franke-Ruta
