What were they thinking?

There was a gop presidential debate last night… but four of the so-called ‘front-runners’ weren’t in attendance.

Mike Huckabee, Ron Paul, Sam Brownback, Tom Tancredo, Duncan Hunter and Alan Keyes participated, but Rudy Giuliani, Fred Thompson, John McCain and Mitt Romney didn’t…

Did I mention that the debate was specific to issues facing/effecting minorities in general and “people of color” specifically? And that the quartets refusal to attend drew a harsh response from moderator Tavis Smiley in his opening remarks, when he said; “Finally, some of the campaigns who declined our invitation to join us tonight have suggested publicly that this audience would be hostile and unreceptive. Since we’re live on PBS right now, I can’t tell you what I really think of these kinds of comments.”

For a group who want minorities to help elect them to the most powerful seat in the land, ignoring this, along with the previously-ignored Hispanic debate, is not only reprehensible… but incomprehensible. Here they had a chance to speak to these large segments of the population about issues facing them, and they didn’t… sure they had excuses, but they were just that; excuses.

And their decision to ignore the debate even led to some outrage from some of the others attending, with former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee saying he was “embarrassed,” that they didn’t attend and Sen. Sam Brownback (r-KS) saying that their absence was a “disgrace.”

Here’s a nickels worth of free advice to the so-called frontrunners; if you expect to lead a nation, you have to lead the entire nation, not just particular parts of it… as George Bush is now finding out…