John Hopkins - Iraq-specific debate

Leading Democratic candidates for President have turned down an invitation to attend an Iraq-specific debate sponsored by Financial Times and the Center on Politics and Foreign Relations at the Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies (SAIS). The debate is scheduled for June 6th. The debate would allow for a real debate on Iraq that will allow for more than sixty-second sound bites.

Tonight, the Dodd Campaign issued this statement in an email regarding the inadequate amount of time that candidates were able to speak, "Despite very real differences in the presidential candidates' positions on the critical issues facing our nation, the format of tonight's CNN debate allowed for disproportionate amounts of time for candidates to discuss their positions."

It is important to note, that the Dodd campaign has been given the opportunity to attend a debate being held at John Hopkins, but they have declined to do so. I do not have an agenda-but simply is their a reason to be complaining about the alleged disproportionate times if the opportunity to debate on the issue is there?

Senator Joe Biden is the only candidate to have accepted their invitation to discuss his plan for Iraq. When the Edwards camp in the Spin Room was asked about John Edwards not accepting the invitation, they said it likely had to do with scheduling conflicts and that you can only do so many debates in so many days. But the campaign member said that Edwards performed well enough tonight, and he would be just fine.