As readers now know, Daschle has refused the request of the Mitchell Daily Republic to debate at the Corn Palace for "security reasons" and Daschle has refused to participate in weekly Lincoln-Douglas style debates as the Rapid City Journal requested. He's also refused the traditional political debate at the State Fair this weekend on the famous "Freedom Stage." He's also ducked about 30 other debates. Daschle is now trying to avoid--according to this article in today's Rapid City Journal--a debate on an Indian reservation, which Thune has readily agreed to. Note the high level of double-speak and disorganization involved in avoiding the reservation debate:
Both candidates in South Dakota's U.S. Senate race say they want a debate in Indian Country. Nevertheless, it appears unlikely that Democrat Tom Daschle and Republican John Thune will meet before an American Indian reservation audience before the Nov. 2 election.Daschle, the three-term incumbent, told the Rapid City Journal on Wednesday that his campaign would ask the various sponsors of his remaining six South Dakota debates to move one to a reservation.
"We have proposed that of the eight debates we have going, one take place on a reservation," Daschle said. "We've written to sponsors to ask them to consider the option."
Thune, a former three-term congressman, criticized Daschle for being unwilling to add any debates to his schedule to have one on a reservation. Thune campaign manager Dick Wadhams called it "a hollow, empty and phony gesture on Tom Daschle's part."
"If he wants to debate on a reservation, he ought to accept a debate," Wadhams said. "John Thune will gladly and readily debate on the reservations of South Dakota. It doesn't require moving one of the existing debates already scheduled. Once again, he has found a convenient dodge."
By Friday, Daschle's plan had unraveled, and the Daschle campaign sent no letters to debate sponsors.
"We were on the verge of doing it," Daschle's deputy campaign manager, Dan Pfeiffer, said.
Pfeiffer said the letter was going out only to the five media outlets, including the Rapid City Journal, that were cooperating to host a debate on Oct. 18, and not to the sponsors of all debates. The letter was not sent, Pfeiffer said, because Mitch Krebs of KSFY-TV in Sioux Falls told the campaign that the five media outlets had agreed not to move the debates out of the TV studio.
"We are not in a position to dictate debate sites," Pfeiffer said. "We'd be very comfortable debating on a reservation. We'd be supportive of that. No one has come to us with a proposal for one."
Krebs said Steve Hildebrand, Daschle's campaign manager, told him the campaign would prefer to keep the debate in the KSFY studio.
"I never heard anything about moving it to a reservation or anything about a letter going out," Krebs said.
Apparently the Daschle campaign really didn't make much of an effort at all to have a reservation debate. But this is my favorite line:
"We want to do more than just spend time doing debates," said Hildebrand. "We don't have any more room on our schedule to do debates and other things we want to get done. He does a lot of these community dinners and coffees, which provide him with an opportunity to talk directly with voters without the confrontational setting of a structured debate."
Yes, if Daschle debated he wouldn't have time for more canned, scripted, managed, and controlled events reciting boilerplate and not taking public questions.
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