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Mitt Romney will not participate in the Donald Trump debate

December 6, 2011

  Earlier this week two Republican presidential candidates–Ron Paul and John Huntsman–announced that they would not participate in Donald Trump’s debate on December 27th, and today Mitt Romney also announced that he would skip the debate. (Of course, tomorrow is a different day and knowing Mitt Romney’s past he might just decide to join after all.)

  Personally, I think this is a great move by Mitt Romney and I hope that all the other candidates who have not announced their intentions also snub Donald Trump. As Harrison wrote in this post on Capitol Commentary; Donald Trump only cares about Donald Trump and he is simply doing this for the publicity.

  Donald Trump did not agree to moderate this debate because he feels this is such an important election that he has to do something to help defeat Obama, he is doing this simply to get his name and his face on television and I for one do not want to see this primary season turned into a circus. And I feel that is exactly what is going to happen if the debate does  in fact take place because Donald Trump will try to make himself the center of attention during the debate and take the attention off of the candidates and the important issues facing our country as we move forward–and that is the last thing we need at this point.

19 Comments leave one →
  1. josiahe's avatar
    josiahe permalink
    December 6, 2011 8:12 pm

    Normally I don’t disagree with you, and I’m not a Donald fan, yet I would have liked to hear the questions and answers – the candidates would have given. Though Trump may be out of line, he certainly has made his mark business-wise and has a different view on world politics …. I also believe Obama is not eligible to be president, … just like his grandmother said.

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    • Steve Dennis's avatar
      December 6, 2011 8:23 pm

      I guess we can’t always agree on everything. 🙂 I just don’t trust Donald Trump although I do agree that is would be interesting to watch and I will watch if it still takes place.

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  2. LD Jackson's avatar
    LD Jackson permalink
    December 6, 2011 8:41 pm

    Donald Trump is a complete and total joke. This debate is almost as big a joke as his flirtation with running for President.

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    • Steve Dennis's avatar
      December 6, 2011 8:48 pm

      I agree Larry, but I don’t think his flirtation is over. I think he is using this to inject himself back into the race and I wouldn’t be surprised if he were to throw his hat back into the ring when all is said and done.

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      • LD Jackson's avatar
        LD Jackson permalink
        December 6, 2011 9:11 pm

        I do not have the words to express how much I hope that doesn’t happen. The man is nothing but a sideshow and will do nothing but detract from the seriousness of the issues we are facing.

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      • Steve Dennis's avatar
        December 6, 2011 10:11 pm

        I couldn’t agree more Larry, I hope that I am wrong.

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  3. bunkerville's avatar
    bunkerville permalink
    December 6, 2011 9:33 pm

    I am of a divided mind on this one. It all depends where Trump comes from. We are desperate for some good old fashioned Obama bashing. All we have had so far are moderators who have been in Obama’s camp with questions that were hardly worthy of a good debate. There will be huge ratiings with Trump. I think Trump may fool a lot of people by playing it straight. But it is a crap shoot, and I understand your point of view.

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    • Steve Dennis's avatar
      December 6, 2011 10:12 pm

      That is an interesting thought and it would be good to see a debate with a moderator who wasn’t in the bag for Obama, I just don’t trust Trump’s motive.

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    • lou222's avatar
      lou222 permalink
      December 6, 2011 10:14 pm

      As much as I am not in favor with The Donald as a moderator, it still seems to me that he would not do any worse than the moderators we have had so far. I can understand the candidates not wanting to participate in this, but would it be worse than what the other debates have been? I will watch this one, if it happens. Will it help the Republicans? Who knows. It might also hurt them. So, I have mixed feelings about this.

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      • Steve Dennis's avatar
        December 7, 2011 6:50 am

        The problem I have is that I think Trump will make this more about himself than anything else; he will attempt to make healines the next day by going over the top.

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  4. integrity1st's avatar
    integrity1st permalink
    December 6, 2011 11:55 pm

    I am surprised by this one. NOT a Trump fan, but i was loving his talking points when he jumped in. It was the first time in my life I liked everything coming out of his mouth. Kinda like Bachman, when in the early days, she and only she spearheaded the mantra “one term president”. so I’m surprised at how strongly you feel about this debate, because he sure had the talking points. I will never forgive him, however, if he re-enters the race as an indy, because then, all will be lost.

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    • Steve Dennis's avatar
      December 7, 2011 6:52 am

      I seem to be getting mixed reactions on this one; If this debate happens I will watch it but I just can’t get past my feeling that the only person Trump wants to help here is himself.

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  5. rjjrdq's avatar
    December 7, 2011 12:34 am

    Trump had some pretty interesting things to say regarding China. That would explain why Huntsman ducked out. Showman that he is, Trump might just hammer the candidates in a way previous moderators would not. I thought it had the potential to be interesting anyway.

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  6. Harrison's avatar
    December 7, 2011 12:42 am

    Newt is looking increasingly desperate being the only one and Trump has egg on his face.

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    • Steve Dennis's avatar
      December 7, 2011 6:53 am

      Newt jumped in so quickly that you have to wonder if he already knows Trump will endorse him and they were planning on using this debate as a forum together.

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  7. lou222's avatar
    lou222 permalink
    December 7, 2011 7:29 am

    I guess you can’t have a “debate” with one person, can you? I am with Integrity1st on this one, he did bring up points that needed to be made early on. We know it is a given that he is in it for some face time, but let’s give him a chance to hopefully bring up some of these points again, maybe we will earn something about the candidates that we didn’t know. OR, we could have another boring debate with another same-o-same-o moderator that we either avoid watching or turn the channel on. It is everyones choice to do that.

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    • Steve Dennis's avatar
      December 7, 2011 10:34 pm

      The one good side to this in my opinon is this; so far only Newt and Rick Santorum have agreed to this debate. I like Santorum and there is only a few candidates in this debate Santorum will get more time. I think he is going to do better in Iowa than is being predicted and this could actually help him.

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