Kennedy Wimps Out First Debate

We’ve heard a lot of noise from the Kennedy campaign over the last week about debates, debates, debates. Accusations have been flooding out from Kennedy’s camp that Mary Landrieu is scared to debate, but with very little evidence to support their claims.

Steve Sabludowsky did an excellent job of exposing the Kennedy campaign’s manoeuvrings for exactly what they were, pure political gamesmanship:

I was a little surprised when I received a press release from the John Kennedy campaign saying he wanted to reiterate his position that he wants televised debates in every Louisiana Congressional District.

Instead of his campaign contacting Mary Landrieu and working out dates to achieve exactly what he wanted—televised debates covering every congressional district in Louisiana , he sent a letter to Mary Landrieu and then released it concurrently to the media that suggested that Landrieu was not being cooperative in debating. Yesterday, he said he was ready to debate next week.

Not only did Kennedy not consult with the Landrieu campaign beforehand, but, it had not secured any dates from television networks for the so-called debates.

This, in my view was pure political showmanship and spin.

The only attempt to promote debates along the line of what Kennedy wanted was a statement by him in a newspaper a month ago. So, instead of contacting the Landrieu campaign, calling a meeting, sitting down with television networks, Kennedy sent out a press release and simultaneously whined about Landrieu not responding to his call for debates. In my books, this is unfair political theater and borders on the ficticious.

Ryan, over at Daily Kingfish, took it one step further though and truly blew the doors off Kennedy’s vacuous claims. Turns out Kennedy was invited to debate Landrieu at the Louisiana Municipal Association’s conference on Saturday, but turned it down! Even his new found friend Bobby Jindal was there for moral support.

Kennedy should stick his “Debate Watch Clock” in reverse.