September 28, 2007	Friday	Ramazan 15, 1428

WASHINGTON: The show will go on, but the top Republican presidential contenders will not be there — and they are hearing plenty of criticism of their decision to skip a debate on Thursday focused on minority issues.

The absence of the front-runners from a debate at a historically black college in Maryland has raised new questions about the Republican Party’s attitude toward minorities and its ability to expand its appeal.

The missing candidates — former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani, former Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney, Arizona Senator John McCain and former Tennessee Senator Fred Thompson — all cited scheduling conflicts in skipping the event.

Critics have questioned their excuse, particularly after a Spanish-language debate aimed at Hispanics was canceled earlier this month when all of the 2008 Republicans except McCain backed out.

Fellow Republicans fret about the effect of the no-shows on the party heading into the November 2008 election.

“I am puzzled by their decision. I think it’s a mistake and I wish they would change their minds,” former House Speaker Newt Gingrich, who is still pondering his own White House run, said on ABC’s “Good Morning America.”

The debate, scheduled for Morgan State University in Baltimore and moderated by PBS host Tavis Smiley, follows a similar session in Washington in June that drew all of the Democratic presidential contenders.

“You cannot run for president and think that along the way you can ignore people of colour,” Smiley said.

A fifth candidate, Colorado Republican Tom Tancredo, reversed his decision to skip the debate and called Smiley on Wednesday to say he would participate.

Tancredo originally had agreed to appear but backed out after producers included recently declared Republican candidate Alan Keyes, a black commentator who has run unsuccessfully several times for president and senator.

“He is the first of the five to change his mind and agree to appear,” Smiley said. “I’m hopeful the others will follow his lead.

EMPTY PODIUMS

Neal Kendall, producer of the debate and Smiley’s PBS show, said the stage would feature four empty podiums for the missing candidates. The topic will be raised in the debate, he said.

“We can’t figure out why they would not want to reach out not only to African-American voters but to Hispanic voters as well,” Kendall said. “To see this now seems to be turning back the clock.”

Blacks are the most loyal of Democratic voters, with nearly 90 per cent backing the party in recent presidential elections.

But Republicans had launched a concerted effort to win their vote after President George Bush’s re-election in 2004.

That effort largely was cut short in part by public anger over the Bush administration’s response to Hurricane Katrina in New Orleans in 2005 and the devastation of the area’s heavily black population.

Bush and Republicans also targeted the fast-growing bloc of Hispanic voters after Bush earned more than 40 per cent of their vote in 2004, but polls show the recent immigration debate could turn them back toward Democrats.

The explosion of debates and forums this year has made scheduling difficult for all candidates. Democrat Barack Obama, an Illinois senator, has promised to skip all debates except those sanctioned by the party. He did not attend a debate aimed at the elderly last week in Iowa.

The top Republicans also skipped a “values voters” debate earlier this month in Florida aimed at religious and social conservatives. Giuliani, Romney and McCain are on the campaign trail in California and New York on Thursday, raising money as the end of the third-quarter fundraising period approaches.“You have to make hard choices,” said Kevin Madden, a spokesman for Romney. “We have a heavy travel and fundraising schedule and we can’t be everywhere.”—Reuters