Has Obama dropped out of CBC/Fox News September debate?

Ben Smith at The Politico is reporting that he has:

Barack Obama has chosen not to attend September’s Democratic presidential primary debate co-sponsored by the Congressional Black Caucus Institute and Fox News, an aide said, effectively dooming the event.

Obama is the only member of the Congressional Black Caucus running for President, and his decision allows other candidates to skip the debate without facing criticism that they are turning their backs on a leading black institution.

Friday, John Edwards was the first candidate to announce he’d skip the debate. The CBC Institute is hosting one other debate, with CNN in January, in which all candidates are expected to participate.

“CNN seemed like a more appropriate venue,” the aide said, adding that Obama himself had not called CBC leadership or Fox executives to deliver the news. “It was handled at a staff level.”

I was wondering how long it would take before Obama finally bowed to the demands of the Nutroots.

This is just another sign that even those who are portrayed as ‘moderates’ by the mainstream press are allowing the ‘bats to take over the party.

If Fox News is smart, they’ll propose holding a debate between the two eventual presidential nominees. Then we’ll see if the Democrat drops out. Scheduled Democratic debates allow the left the chance to appeal to their Nutroot base. A nationally televised debate would (obviously) allow them the chance to get their message across to a larger audience. Oh, what the Republicans could do with that if the Dem candidate backed out

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