With each passing day, conventional wisdom is predicting a long road ahead for republican presidential hopefuls.  After a months-long and expensive primary race, there seems to be no clear frontrunner and the stakes are growing.  Can anyone think of a good reason to opt out of a prominent televised debate?

Key Republican leaders are encouraging the party's presidential candidates to rethink their decision to skip presidential debates focusing on issues important to minorities, fearing a backlash that could further erode the party's standing with black and Latino voters.

The leading contenders for the Republican nomination have indicated they will not attend the "All American Presidential Forum" organized by black talk show host Tavis Smiley, scheduled for Sept. 27 at Morgan State University in Baltimore and airing on PBS. Former New York mayor Rudolph W. Giuliani, former Massachusetts governor Mitt Romney, former senator Fred D. Thompson (Tenn.) and Sen. John McCain (Ariz.) all cited scheduling conflicts in forgoing the debate. The top Democratic contenders attended a similar event in June at Howard University.

I'd like to know what prior engagements are so important that they would throw away the chance to get their message out there.  I'd also like to know why such conflicts seem to arise in tandem with minority forums.  But that's rhetorical - we all know that after six years of ignoring people of color, the GOP has all but abandoned any hope of recapturing their vote.  I guess Guliani, McCain, Thompson and the rest of the peanut gallery would rather not get caught on camera sputtering for creative platitudes.