SD '08 - The Candidates Have Been Invited!

Here's the word, from Sheril at The Intersection - and the word is exciting!

For months everyone has been asking us, when will there be an invitation sent to candidates...a date... a venue...

Well it's finally happened! It's official. Hillary Clinton, Mike Huckabee, John McCain, and Barack Obama have been invited to ScienceDebate2008.

The location? Philadelphia's Franklin Institute, named after one of our nation's greatest scientists (and greatest patriots). The date? April 18, days before the Pennsylvania Primary.

We're so close to seeing this through and now more than ever, we need you're help! This is our biggest news yet and the first tangible Call to Action for the blogger coalition beyond the announcement. The time has come to mobilize your readers.

We are asking that you not only announce the invitation, but also to engage readers to take action. How people can get involved is listed within our post here:

1. Contact the campaigns, and tell them to attend ScienceDebate2008! A list of contact information for the campaigns can be found here. (see right margin)

2. Write letters to the editor of your local newspapers, raising further awareness about this initiative. Some handy letter writing tips can be found here.

3. Tell a friend about ScienceDebate2008 (handy link here). We need to spread the word as much as possible at this critical time. We're at 13,000 supporters right now; we want to get to 15,000 supporters by the end of the week and 20,000 supporters by the end of the month. We need your help to make that happen.

This is our collective call and if there was ever a time that we need your help, it's now. We need to make a ton of noise about this. We need to make the campaigns say they'll come to Philly debate.

Together we can make this happen!

Thank you,

S & C

For other links:

Press release

Official candidate invite text

Franklin Institute

Campaign Contact Info

Philly and the Franklin Institute - awesome choice of venue.
(Not that I'm biased about Philly or anything...) Geez, it would be great to be able to attend...but I doubt I'll be on the ticket list.

Make noise! Share the info! Contact the campaigns!

Who do you think will be first to accept the invite????

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That is pretty embarrassing. A science debate should be based on research. Yet, the people who are putting on this debate failed to do their own research and realize that Ron Paul is still in the running.

Mike, it's precisely because they did their research that Ron Paul was not invited. They are required to invite "all viable candidates", with a clear definition of viability.

...candidates who have a mathematical chance of becoming president, and who show a minimum 15% support level in the most recent national poll averages as published by RealClearPolitics.com. If at the time of the debate an invited candidate has withdrawn or is no longer viable by the above definition, they will not participate. If a new viable candidate emerges before the debate, he or she will be invited. The invitation was therefore sent to the following candidates (in alphabetical order): Hillary Clinton, Mike Huckabee, John McCain, and Barack Obama.