So says Jennifer Rubin in her blog (Right Turn) at WashingtonPost.com:
Right Turn has learned that, after several weeks of schedule adjustment, Mitt Romney will now appear at the candidate forum hosted by Sen. Jim DeMint in South Carolina. The Romney camp dismisses the suggestion that this is in response to Texas Gov. Rick Perry’s rise in the polls. Romney spokeswoman Andrea Saul tells me: “We’re pleased we were able to arrange our schedule so that Gov. Romney can attend Labor Day events in both New Hampshire and South Carolina.” Romney was able to shift a Tea Party Express event in Rollins Park, New Hampshire to Sunday evening. He will remain in New Hampshire Monday morning for a pancake breakfast in Manchester and then travel to South Carolina for the forum.
The official name of the forum is the Palmetto Freedom Forum. It will take place on Labor Day and is sponsored by the American Principles Project.
From the forum’s Facebook page:
The Palmetto Freedom Forum is an event that will take place on Labor Day, 2011 in Columbia, SC. The goal of the event is to have an honest discussion with the top GOP Presidential Candidates, giving them an outlet to voice their thoughts on the key issues.
Apparently only those who had a 5% or higher in RCP’s national polls average on Aug. 22nd will be included in the debate. Gingrich is currently at 5.7% and Cain at 4.7%, but both are listed at 5% on the 22nd, so I’m not exactly sure if they made the cut. The others who qualify to attend would be Perry, Bachmann and Paul, and Palin if she should jump in by then. Disqualified candidates include Santorum and Huntsman.
So we know it’s taking place on Labor Day, but can anyone find a time? Television broadcast? Online broadcast?
~Nate Gunderson
Nate owns and manages a small souvenir manufacturing business. He and his wife of 12 years have 2 children. Nate has been blogging for Mitt Romney since late 2006 and is co-founder and editor of MittRomneyCentral.com.
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Glad to hear that! I hope we can get some video on it next week! Next week will be a busy, busy week with the DeMint event, the jobs announcement the next day in NV and then the debate @Reagan Library!
I just read the WaPo article on Mitt’s VFW………loved it!
I’m glad to hear that Gov. Romney rearranged his schedule so that he could participate in this event. I was very disappointed that Mitt originally had to opt out of such a crucial forum. But I am like you, I cannot find info anywhere on TV listing for the forum or the time it will be held on Monday.
I am a HUGE fan of Jim DeMint & he’s one person who I would support strongly over Romney if he had been running for President. At this point though, I think that DeMint should be chosen by Romney as his running mate. A Vice President DeMint has a nice sound to it & there’s an even better sound to a President DeMint 8 years later.
This is what I found on the Facebook page:
“This forum is being sponsored by the American Principles Project and will take place at the Columbia Metropolitan Convention Center in Columbia, South Carolina on September 5th at 3pm. It is an invitation-only ticketed event, but South Carolina Educational Television has agreed to broadcast the event live, statewide on their South Carolina Channel.”
If this is the case – this pretty much sucks because I don’t know of anybody who gets “South Carolina Educational Television”. I want to be able to see the forum. What is a forum if you have to be invited to attend & no out-of-State TV coverage? Hopefully, FOXNews or somebody else will pick up the event nationally. We deserve to see the candidates in this type of a forum.
It’s also not a traditional “debate”. Candidates will appear individually & each will be asked questions for 20 minutes. The questioners will be Senator DeMint, Rep. Steve King of Iowa, and the head of the American Principles Project. It should be very interesting. It just sucks that it doesn’t appear that it will currently be on TV for anybody outside of South Carolina.
I am very glad to hear that Mitt is going to attend the South Carolina town hall.
Here’s an update – yesterday, it was announced that CNN will be showing the Labor Day Republican Presidential Candidate Forum Live. The broadcast begins at 3 pm EST. That’s noon on the west coast.
I’m glad they were able to get TV coverage for this important event. So pass on the news!