4 Dems Come to UNR
According to the RGJ Clinton, Obama, Edwards, and Richardson are coming to Nevada for a debate that’s not really a debate.
Let me say, while I understand their reasons for excluding the others, I think it’s a mistake. While their campaigns may be irrelevant, sometimes the fringe candidates are the most important ones.
Take Ron Paul for example. I don’t much like the guy and he doesn’t have a snowball’s chance of winning this thing. He is, however, a very limited government kinda guy. Adding him to any debate keeps the rest of the field on their toes if they want to wear that “limited government” badge. Ron Paul forces the entire discourse of a Republican debate to move in a limited government direction.
On the Democrat side, look at Joe Biden. He put the smack down on the unrealistic cut and run stratagies from Iraq. I don’t advocate pulling out of Iraq any time soon. However, if I were forced to swallow that strategy, I would trust Biden more than any of the dems (except maybe Clinton) to get it done right. Biden occasionally adds some realizism to the unrealistic world the left lives in.
Often times the impact a candidate has on a race has less to do with the number of votes they get and more to do with how they change the debate.