Posted by Sabrina Eaton July 18, 2007 17:52PM
After passing through Cleveland yesterday to discuss the city's longstanding mortgage foreclosure crisis, presidential candidate John Edwards made the day of his longshot rival for the Democratic nomination, Cleveland's Dennis Kucinich, by telling "Hardball" talk-show host Chris Matthews that he'd be happy to do a three-way debate with Kucinich and frontrunner Hillary Clinton with Matthews on MSNBC.
"If you want to do the three of us, or maybe one more, and then do the other group the same way, if there's a way to break us into smaller groups and include everybody and have a more serious discussion, I will do it," Edwards told Matthews.
Matthews issued the invitation to Edwards after microphones picked up a conversation between him and Clinton in which they opined that reducing the number of candidates in public debates would allow more serious public policy discussions.
When the exchange was publicized, Kucinich issued an outraged press release denouncing Clinton and Edwards for plotting to exclude other candidates, and promising his campaign would "immediately take steps to address the planned actions of the Clinton and Edwards campaigns."
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http://blog.cleveland.com/openers/2007/07/edwards_agrees_to_debate_clint.html