Incompetence or Worse

When Martin O'Malley ranted about the restrictive debate schedule set up by the DNC I thought he was over-reacting. I have changed my mind. I do not want to act like a Republican by poisoning the well or by throwing unsubstantiated accusations at anyone, but Debbie Wasserman-Schultz and the DNC could not have picked better times to hold the last two debates if their intention was to decrease the number of people watching those debates. This is not lost on the supporters of Bernie Sanders and Martin O'Malley. They, the people who favor Sanders or O'Malley, are convinced that Wasserman-Schultz is purposely limiting the exposure of all the candidates so that the one with the most recognizable name (Hillary Clinton) will win.  Needless to say that the people who do not favor Hillary Clinton are screaming foul over this perceived stacking of the deck.

Whether those accusations are correct or not, the small number of debates and the scheduling of those debates is outrageous and horribly ill-advised. Hillary Clinton, Bernie Sanders, and Martin O'Malley do not need the DNC to protected them from themselves by limiting their exposure; they are not factually challenged Republicans with foot in mouth disease.* All of those Democratic candidates are very competent people who have something important to say about the issues. Doing anything that decreases the number of people who will hear what those candidates have to say is as bad as imposing conditions that decrease the voter turn out. We are Democrats! We are better than that! We do not simply go along. We want to hear all serious candidates so that we can make informed decisions. Furthermore, decreasing the number of people who watch the Democratic debates leaves center stage to the Republicans. And abandoning center stage to the Republicans is not what anyone with more than a beer soaked peanut for a brain would call a winning tactic!

*People get foot in mouth disease; whereas animals get hoof in mouth disease. Although with so many of the fear mongering Republicans acting like crazed bulls it is easy to understand why someone might get the two confused.