The 9/23/07 debate among Democratic presidential candidates sponsored by the Congressional Black Caucus and scheduled to air on Fox News Channel has been spurned by five of eight announced candidates, but as far as its backers are concerned, the event is still going to be held, although not necessarily as planned. The three leading candidates, Hillary Clinton, Barack Obama and John Edwards all said long ago that they were not attending, at least in part because of the alleged rightward political slant of Fox, and they've been joined by Bill Richardson and Chris Dodd. Only Dennis Kucinich, Joe Biden and Mike Gravel have committed to the event.
Capitol Hill newspaper The Politico says that CBC still hopes to prevail on a few more candidates to attend – but they have political cover in the form of promises to participate in another CBC debate pegged for South Carolina next January on CNN, which this group finds to be more politically-correct. CBC said it may also tinker with the format if there are no further participants. For its part, Fox has thus far stated that it plans to go ahead with the event.
