There was a lot of controversy that came out of the issue of the candidates not showing up at Morgan State University for the debate last Thursday. The candidates that did show up, Rep. Ron Paul of Texas, former Arkansas Governor Mike Huckabee, Sen. Sam Brownback of Kansas, Rep. Tom Tancredo of Ohio, Rep. Duncan Hunter of California and Alan L. Keyes, all had negative things to say about the candidates that chose to not show up, ( Mitt Romney, John McCain, Rudy Giuliani, and Fred Thompson), because of campaign conflicts. The candidates that did show up apologized to the audience in the building and those watching at home.
It is reported that some of the Republican candidates that declined to show up said that the crowd would be "hostile and unreceptive."
In a discussion on Meet the Press, Tavis Smiley, the moderator of the Republican debate held at Morgan, said that he was pleased that he did not have to say too much on the subject of the candidates not being there because people in their own party were speaking out about how embarrassed they are about the candidates behavior. People like Newt Gingrich, Jack Kemp, J.C. Watts, Michael Steele, and the president himself in his press conference at the White House, have all spoken out about the issue.
I believe that it is not smart on the candidates part to choose to not show up to every Black and Hispanic invitation to speak that they are given. The candidates that show up to those events show the minority public that they care about them.
When I interviewed some of the Morgan students that attended the debate about the subject, I mostly got negative feedback on the matter. The overall feel was that they felt disrespected and not cared about.
In my opinion, those candidates who keep having "scheduling conflicts" during every invitation to speak at minority events need to wake up and consider if they are causing more harm than good for their race for the presidency.