Seals Ducks Debate

Seals abruptly ducks out of a debate yesterday. Is he afraid to face Mark Kirk? Eric Krol, in his Animal Farm blog, Daily Herald:

For a guy who clamored for more debates against Republican Congressman Mark Kirk, Democrat Dan Seals sure treats his rare chances to debate Kirk funnily. At the last minute, Seals pulled out of today's debate in Waukegan. That's the kind of behavior usually reserved for incumbents. True, it was a private event, but the public would have learned about the contrasting positions of Kirk and Seals through the newspaper reporting on the event. Seals did, however, have the time to stage a downtown news conference to try to keep alive an unflattering story about a Kirk staffer that's now a week old.

Could it be Seals realized he stuffed up the last debate, or could it have anything to do with Kerry's slur against our troops, for which he has not yet apologized? Could it be Seals did not want to have to disavow Kerry's remarks? Perhaps he has no intention of repudiating them.

Or maybe it had to do with an FEC investigation of his own fundraising.

UPDATE: Apparently the debate Seals ducked was open mike. Seals obviously prefers the Liberal League of Women Voters format of the first debate, where they pre-screen the questions to give him softballs and give Kirk the tough ones. Obviously Kirk carried the day at that one. So much for Seals promoting himself as Mr. Town Meeting.