Angle Bails on Debate Immediately After Reid Accepts

Every now and again you think Sharron Angle can't possibly do something else to decrease her chances at knocking off Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid this fall in the Nevada Senate election. And then she goes and does something like this.

Sharron Angle's last-minute decision to pull out of a planned debate has angered long-time Nevada political journalist Jon Ralston.

"Earlier today, Sharron Angle's campaign agreed to accept our invitation to debate Harry Reid on 'Face to Face' in an hour-long live broadcast from Reno on October 21st. Within hours of Reid accepting, Angle's campaign called to say, well, it's backing out now," Ralston said on the local news show "Face to Face" Thursday. He then played a clip of Angle saying she would like to have a debate on the show with Reid.

"I thought I had seen it all in this campaign. I guess not[.]"

Skipping a debate, in and of itself, doesn't hurt a campaign. After all, candidates reject debate invitations all of the time.

But the timing of this is quite remarkable, and thus problematic. It shows that Angle is afraid to debate Reid -- not the type of message a candidate wants to send to the electorate.

What's more, while the opinions of one columnist do not an election sway, it can't be good to so publicly embarrass a leading political voice in one's state. Generally, "earned media" entails earning positive press from reporters. Unfortunately for the Republicans, the only earned media coming Angle's way is negative press.