Fox News Debate? Edwards: Hell No; Obama: No; Hillary: Wish I Could, But I Have An Appointment That Day?

Edwards, Obama, and Clinton undoubtedly did the right thing in rejecting a Fox News Democratic Debate. By doing so, they gave the American people something worth talking about (and no, it's not love). Why? Because many Americans still believe Fox News is a real news channel. Accepting the debate would have sent organizations like Media Matters, a preeminent media watchdog, back to start, and resolved the question of whether it's Fox or Faux in favor of the former. A larger segment of the American public would tune into GOP TV and believe they're actually seeing "Fair and Balanced."

Among the three, Edwards wins first-prize by a landslide. While he was the first to toss his invitation in the trash, the epilogue is the part of this story . . . When asked why, Edwards responded with such candor that Ben Smith of the Politico divined the following headline: "Edwards Isn't Afraid to Dis Fox News." After the campaign's announcement, Fox News Chairman Roger Ailes, to everyone's surprise (...), went ballistic. The Edwards campaign's response: Yeah, and what are you doing to do about it?

A 10-part special on Edwards' personal wealth, scheduled for next January, perhaps? Edwards aides joked that they'd open their car doors with a little extra care but said they had decided they could confront Fox at little cost to the campaign. "What are they going to do?" Edwards aide Jonathan Prince said of Fox executives. "The more that they behave outrageously, the more they show that they're not a legitimate objective source of news."

And so Edwards and the Democrats appear to have put the nation's top-rated cable news channel in an unusual position: defense. Pushed by MoveOn.org and liberal bloggers and then supported by his leading Democratic rivals, Sens. Barack Obama of Illinois and Hillary Rodham Clinton of New York, Edwards played a key role in shutting down the two debates. Now the former senator from North Carolina is trying to turn his hostility toward Fox into an asset with Democrats already suspicious of the network.

Obama easily captures second-prize for three reasons: first, his invitation lay on top of the Edwards invite; second, he too had the audacity to tell the truth ("CNN seemed like a more appropriate host,” Obama's spokesman told reporters); and third, Hillary's explanation was pathetic.

Hours after Obama's answer, Hillary's staff emerged with a Fox News Alert . . . “We're going to participate in the DNC-sanctioned debates only,” Hillary's spokeman announced (double-check me on this, but I'm fairly certain that's New Yorker for "Howard Dean made me do it.")

[Hillary's spokesman] added that Clinton already had commitments to participate in an upcoming debate in South Carolina and one hosted by Tavis Smiley, the PBS late-night talk show host.

If that's the case, how was Hillary the last to say she wouldn't or couldn't do it? Edwards and Obama essentially said they wouldn't do a debate hosted by GOP TV. Hillary alleged a legitimate excuse, but waited for Obama's answer to deliver it?

Its well past time for Democrats to stop missing Bill and start reminding Hillary that she'll need to win the primary to prevail in the general.