Leading GOP Candidates Skip Debate on Black Issues

Former Arkansas governor Mike Huckabee called his rivals' absence "embarrassing." John McCain, Fred D. Thompson, Rudolph W. Giuliani and Mitt Romney were the no-shows. (By Carol T. Powers -- Bloomberg News)

Smiley, who had spent months wooing the Republican candidates, appeared angry in an interview on CNN the night before the debate. In the interview, with anchor Rick Sanchez, Smiley accused the leading Republican candidates of trying to avoid being confronted by black voters and black journalists.

"They're trying to go, these front-runners, these Republican front-runners, trying to go through this entire primary process and never have to address voters of color and never be queried by journalists of color," Smiley said. "And I think in the most multicultural, multiracial, multiethnic America ever, that, quite frankly, is unacceptable."

The top GOP candidates refused to give in to pressure from both parties, saying they have been buried under a mountain of debate requests that are particularly difficult to accept as they race to raise money in the final days of the third fundraising quarter.

In an interview with the Christian Broadcasting Network's David Brody this week, Romney bristled at the accusation that his decision to skip the debate is an indication of how much -- or how little -- his party cares about minorities.

"Of course we care about minority voters. We're not entirely brain-dead," Romney said. "We want people in the entire country to vote for us -- Hispanic voters, African American voters -- we all want them in the primary and in the general."

Romney turned the tables on the debate's sponsors, the Public Broadcasting Service and Morgan State University, saying, "You call for one in the last couple of weeks in September, which is the last part of the quarter, most of us have got things lined up."

That explanation was far from satisfactory for many critics, who say the Republican Party is already struggling to appeal to minority voters who view the party and its candidates with skepticism. The leading Democratic contenders for president attended a forum moderated by Smiley last month and have debated in front of several audiences that their GOP rivals have snubbed.

Romney, McCain and Giuliani have skipped debates or forums sponsored by the National Association of Latino Elected and Appointed Officials and by the National Urban League.