What is interesting about the scheduled FOX debate is that it is being co-sponsored by the Congressional Black Caucus (CBC) and is being held in one of the most depressed areas of the nation, Detroit, which has been devastated like no other town by the decline in the domestic auto industry. One would think that a party which prides itself on caring about minorities and the downtrodden would place the importance of a minority sponsored debate on current issue, being held in a struggling and predominantly African-American city, above petty political posturing. This is not the case, however, with the modern Democrats. For years this party has seemingly placed political posturing and demagoguery above the interests of the nation as a whole; the FOX debate pullout just underscores the priorities. The Democrat presidential candidates, who are running for the highest office in the land, the leader of all Americans, will not appear on a network which they feel has not been fair to their party. This is where they choose to make their stand against FOX.

The pullout from the debate is not just a slap in the face to the CBC and the city of Detroit, it is a jab at all the loyal viewers of FOX News itself. What are FOX viewers to think of this boondoggle? That they do not count because they watch a network the Democrats do not like? Switch to CNN or CBS or you don't count. This is an interesting perspective considering that FOX has a fairly diverse audience in terms of demographics. What of the CBC? Do the interests of the Democrat party supersede those of this group? Is the city of Detroit, a heavily Democrat city, not entitled to a visit by that party's leading presidential candidates? And how exactly are we to expect these candidates to deal with unfriendly and unsympathetic foreign leaders when they cannot seemingly deal with a television network that is not always nice to them? There is an inherent arrogance in this maneuver which is truly disgusting at a fundamental level.

What is likely happening here is that the Democrat candidates are bowing to pressure from their ultra-liberal constituencies, such as the "moveon.org" crowd. Many of these folks are foaming at the mouth leftists who possess little flexibility of mind to comprehend the wider perspective of an issue. What they know is this: Republicans = bad, Iraq War = bad, and that's about it. There is no tolerance for FOX News simply because it is the one network which does not run down our president on a daily basis or paint the Iraq War as a complete failure; this apparently indicates extreme bias. This is consistent with what many moderates experience regularly. If you do not come out completely against Bush and the Iraq War, then you are nothing but a flunky boot-licker for the "neocons". There is little middle ground to the extreme left. Of course, in politics, each party's candidates need their base constituents to win the nomination; this includes the extreme among them. The Democrats candidates have, obviously, calculated that it is more beneficial at this time to kowtow to the extremists than to address the majority of reasonable citizens.

It is interesting that Pelosi and Reid state they will not meet with Bush at all if there are "preconditions" to the meeting. Yet, logically, this demand represents a "precondition" of their own; it means that they will not fund the war without a pullout date or dates and without the additional spending measures included in the bill. Democrats charge Bush with, "...ignoring the clear message of the American people," in not bringing the troops home. Again, the arrogance displayed by Pelosi and Reid is astounding. They have managed to turn a relatively narrow victory by Democrats in the congressional elections into an overwhelming mandate from the American people. Democrats seem to always feel that they alone speak for the American people. When Republicans hold power it is due to some force beyond of the will of the people; it's due to voter fraud or voter ignorance. When the Republicans controlled Congress and Bush won two elections, all we heard was the need for compromise on the part of Republicans, how they did not have a mandate since the elections were so close. The truth is that the Democrats have no interest in compromise of any kind. Their "precondition" is complete acquiescence by the president. Nancy Pelosi is in charge now, just ask her, she'll tell you.

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