The Daily Background

As I’m sure you recall, Senator Clinton’s campaign ran an extraordinarily petty negative ad spot earlier in the cycle claiming that Barack Obama was refusing to join her in televised debates (Obama’s campaign responded with an ad of their own).

The attack that the Clinton campaign was making was that Obama was selectively agreeing only to debates in states in which he was behind– and not states he was ahead in. Clinton’s top adviser Howard Wolfson made this argument in mid-February on PBS:

HOWARD WOLFSON: Senator Obama is happy to debate in states where he is behind, Texas and Ohio. He does not want to debate in a state where he is ahead, Wisconsin. There’s nothing more old about politics than that… He does not want to discuss the issues where he differs with Senator Hillary Clinton face-to-face in a state where he’s behind. I’m sorry, a state where he’s ahead.

Well, now the tables are turned. CBS News, which had tried to host a televised debate earlier in the cycle (it was canceled due to Democrats boycotting CBS due to a possible strike by the writers of CBS News which has now been resolved) came begging to Obama and Clinton to host a rescheduled debate in North Carolina.

Obama, who has accepted CBS’ invitation, is way ahead in NC according to the most recent poll conducted in the state. And now it’s Clinton who is the one who is not accepting the debate initiation. Reports the Associated Press, “Democratic Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton, once so eager to debate she ran two ads questioning why her rival wouldn’t, has yet to say whether she’ll debate Sen. Barack Obama in North Carolina next month.”

Huh?

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