Update: To help prove my point Hillary Clinton just accepted an invitation to attend the first debate in Nevada on 2/21.

I get dozens of articles and reports and hearsay speculation a day about the 2008 campaign. I am sure in six months that will jump to hundreds. “Candidate X is rumored to do Y” makes for great headlines and fuels 24/7 commentary on the news networks BUT it usually doesn’t add up to much. So I try and do my best NOT to put them or their ideas on the site.

One good example from today is the following headline “Obama, Clinton May Skip Early Debates” which is up at The Politico and written by Roger Simon. Now if that were true it really would be interesting news. One could have a lot of thoughts on the subject.

The problem is the headline makes you believe that there is some sort of serious evidence Senators Obama and Clinton will indeed skip some or all of the early primary debates. The article itself though, doesn’t lend any credible evidence, just speculation.

What evidence does the article provide? 1) Many states will be offering debates, so many that 2) Some people have complained that it is too much.

The article then states:

More importantly, however, Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton may just say no. They might do the unthinkable and just refuse to show up.

They might also drop out of the race or declare themselves socialists or conservatives or they might visit the moon or take scuba lessons. There are plenty of things a candidate might do in an election. There are also things they say they will do or have done. This article doesn’t present any of latter.

This article is 100% speculation. It is interesting speculation, even somewhat logical speculation, but there is absolutely no meat to it. At its core it is actually an opinion. The opinion is that there are too many debates and they really don’t benefit the top tier candidates, just those at the bottom looking for media attention.

I went to a slew of primary debates during the 2004 presidential cycle - - the DNC tried and failed to control them - - and if any of the debates were memorable, I can’t remember it.

The major candidates hated them. The debates not only screwed up their schedules, but took a ton of prep time that could have been better spent going out and actually meeting voters.

The article isn’t labeled as opinion though and it is presented on sites like The Drudge Report which link to this article as a real article and not an editorial. Just the headline “Obama, Clinton May Skip Early Debates”. So if you just see the headline and don’t read the article you are left with the impression that somehow this is fact. Not “Roger Simon ‘Wonders If’ Obama and Clinton May Skip Early Debates”.