TV debate was needed

By The Daily Progress

Published: October 9, 2008

Virgil Goode might not have “agreed” to a televised debate — but he should have.

It would have been the only opportunity for voters in a wide audience to have seen incumbent Congressman Goode and challenger Tom Perriello square off against each other.

His campaign and his opponent’s are trading barbs over whether Mr. Goode “pulled out” of the planned debate. It would have been held in the Charlottesville studios of NBC 29 and also broadcast on other stations in the 5th District coverage area.

Channel 29 says Mr. Goode’s office had agreed to the event on several occasions.

Mr. Goode contends that he never agreed to the debate. He said the date posed a scheduling conflict, and that he — not his staff — is in charge of scheduling debates.

Channel 29 said it had hoped to reschedule around that conflict.

Set aside for a minute the subsidiary issue of whether Mr. Goode consented to the debate and then pulled out, or simply never agreed.

The bottom line is: He should have agreed — if not to the original date, then to a rescheduled option.

That would have been the right thing to do for the district, the right thing to do for democracy.

Two non-televised debates have been held in Danville and Charlottesville, and another is anticipated.

But a televised debate would have reached vastly more voters who deserve to see and hear the two men in action.

To date, no rescheduled event has been announced, nor have the date and place of the next debate been revealed.

Maybe that debate can be televised.

It should be.