The Gay Debate; Thompson's Troubles; Edwards, Clinton and Obama

Matt Drudge just loves this headline he wrote: "FIRST PRESIDENTIAL 'GAY DEBATE' ANNOUNCED."

But the August 9 debate is indeed an accomplishment for the Human Rights Campaign, the nation's largest gay rights lobby. It suggests that the Democratic presidential candidates either no longer believe gay rights is a real wedge issue, or that they don't care anymore -- gays deserve rights. The debate will be one hour long and will air on LOGO.

One Republican points out that Dems won;'t agree to a Congressional Black Caucus debate (on Fox News)... trying to stir up some civil rights v. gay rights pressure. Hard to imagine that happening -- just this week, the NAACP and other civil rights groups held a press conference in favor of expanding hate crimes protections to include gays.

By the way: which Democratic presidential candidate used a variant of the "F" word in public?

2. Richard Viguerie doesn't trust Fred Thompson.

3. O. Kay Henderson has the wrap-up from Iowa, where Sen. Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama jetted in, made speeches, shook hands, and flew back to Washington for votes. John Edwards held a conference call with Iowa reporters. Seems as if both Clinton and Obama managed to build pretty big crowds very quickly.

Comments

Drudge has been in his own personal gay debate for years.

Posted by dwmr | July 10, 2007 5:08 PM

The Republicans pointing out that Dems won't do the Fox debate are just silly, because the Dems have agreed to a different debate with the CBC and CNN later on in the primary cycle. The refusal of all the Dems except for Kucinich, Biden and Gravel has to do with the host, not the CBC. Plus, all the Dems just participated in Tavis Smiley's All-American Presidential Forums which was geared towards addressing issues of particular interest to African American voters. The suggestion that the candidates are more eager to court gay voters than African American voters is just silly (and I'd argue the exact opposite is true, although this new "gay debate" is encouraging).

Posted by Arlen | July 10, 2007 6:36 PM

"One Republican" must have missed that the Dem candidates agreed to a CBC debate to be held in January that's not on Fox News. Link here.

Posted by Algernon | July 10, 2007 6:54 PM

Its definitely a step in the right direction that the Democratic candidates will be appearing at the HRC/Logo debate. All of the candidates of both parties were invited, but I am pretty sure that we won't see hide nor hair of any of the Republicans.

Appearing at the debate is not enough. The candidates who are members of Congress need to put their words into action and push for passage of the Employment Non-Discrimination Act and the federal hate crimes bill.

Posted by Bloggernista | July 10, 2007 7:46 PM