I was quite surprised when I heard about ABC News' and Fox News Channel's intentions to limit participation in this past weekend's debates. This has been done before. In my research for the update to The Nashua Experience, which will be published later this year, I read about the infamous Bush-Reagan debate in 1980. This was the debate in which Ronald Reagan said, "I am paying for this microphone, Mr. Green." The circumstances surrounding this debate garnered national attention. George HW Bush had won the Iowa caucus, and Reagan was about to change his campaign strategy. Previously, he did not want to debate because he thought it would divide the party. Upon hearing the suggestion that Reagan should have a one-on-one debate with Bush, The Telegraph offered to both sponsor and underwrite the event. The excluded candidates protested, and some even filed complaints with the Federal Election Commission. The FEC decided that the paper could sponsor, but not pay for, the event. Reagan's campaign stepped in. Bush accepted. The debate was on.

The other candidates continued to protest. Letters poured in to The Telegraph. Many argued that The Telegraph had no right to proclaim Bush and Reagan the front runners; that was the voters' job. On the day of the debate, Ronald Reagan invited the other Republican candidates to participate. He did not advise The Telegraph or the Bush campaign of the plan. Jon Breen--not Green as Reagan had exclaimed--did not want to change the format, nor did Bush, who had agreed to abide by the paper's wishes. The agitated Breen threatened to turn of the microphone, and Reagan proclaimed "I am paying for this microphone, Mr. Green."

After the debate, readers continued to protest the paper's handling of the event. The editors of The Telegraph wrote that they had been used by the Reagan campaign, but praised the tactics nonetheless. They worked, after all. Today's Telegraph editors, however, seem to have learned from that debacle, as some have called it. When the final debates before the 2008 primary were announced, the paper published an editorial suggesting that all of the candidates should participate in the debates. While some argue that the less popular candidates either dilute the debates or will simply be ignored by the moderator, the writer of the editorial questioned, "Here we are just days away from the first-in-the-nation primary – with the eyes of the entire world upon us – and two major networks have taken it upon themselves to decide who is and who is not a legitimate candidate worthy of our consideration?"* What do you think?

*"Invite all candidates to weekend debates." The Telegraph http://www.nashuatelegraph.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080103/OPINION01/450749263 (January 3, 2008).