This is probably the best solution. It's a shame that there will be no debate before the caucuses begin on January 3rd, but no one will have to compromise their values and cross a picket line.

Mrs. Clinton is simply taking the page from the Republican book and trying to manipulate the ignorant. As things progress I also expect her to play the ' fear everything all the time'
card that Bush/Cheney have made famous. I prefer Obamas honesty and integrity as qualities to lead this country.

If some other idiotic union pickets the White House, is mz numero uno as president, God forbid, going to let that stop her too? Probably so, unless Streisand said it was okay…..

i love it - overpaid, spoiled hollywood types affecting the election process . only in america. only in the capitalistic empire that is america.

Why should the writer's strike affect the debate? It is not entertainment.
The Writer's guild should either make an exception or outside writer's should be used. Why do you need writers for a debate? Have a college
educated moderator write the lines.
"We will now begin the debate." Wow that was tough. Took me all of 2 seconds.

I suspect the real reason has to do with a shortage of writers to prepare their highly scripted responses!

Real reason: With the writers on strike, nobody at the network retains sufficient writing skills to put pen to paper to write up the expected 'hard-hitting' questions–"How much do you hate George Bush", "How fast will you leave Iraq", "How evil are those Republican candidates", etc.

It is unfortunate the debate has been cancelled. But necessary to support the WGA.

It would have been good to see and hear another debate to gauge whether there has been any change between the leaders.

I re-read this blurb three times, nowhere does it mention Senator Clinton or Bush/Cheney. The only one mentioned is former Senator Edwards.

How did Hillary cause the cancellation of the debate? And, where did Senator Obama's honesty and integrity get into this? He wasn't mentioned either.

HILLARY CLINTON '08.

On a good note, it will keep them from putting their foot in their mouth…..again.

To Ron from Nebraska….oh stop, would you?

What a farce! These primped, poseur presidential candidates are more fake than their hair dye. The only real candidates are Ron Paul and probably Kucinich.

The Schrillary, Ghouliani, Bombney, Dedwards, Obomba, McCant and Fred "Sleepy" Thompson camps are so terrified of these debates because the phoniness behind their glitzy corporate sponsored campaigns and propaganda is so evident on the debate stage.

So the Writers Guild is preventing the DNC from getting their mostly pro-union message out? Also, the DNC is respecting the wishes of a union strike that most people believe is frivolous?

This is not a group of blue collar workers in desperate need of health care. When your union body averages >6X the average US income and you want more, you disgrace the concept of organization.

Something good has come from the strike: One less waste of time debate.

That's great. The candidates avoid being accountable to us while posing as if they are pro union while we end up getting Obama and Clinton, the two least qualified candidates, shoved down our throat through political commentary. This election is turning out to be a real joke. Considering the last seven years, it is very sad that we are going to get our choice stolen from us again. The Republicans steal elections the old fashion way, through strait forward criminal behavior. But, it looks like the Democrats steal as well by keep us uninformed and marking lock step with whatever we are told. This is not America.

Obviously, the strike has an inmense effect on the democratic candidates. Without their Hollywood writers they will lack interesting "one-liners", the mandatory 10-word campaign phrase needed for a punchline and they would not dare to look disrespectful to their primary supporters in the West Coast. Hooray for Hollywood!!!

what matters to the country at election time should far out weigh a union strike

Okay, we get it. There are lots of jokes to be made about the writer's strike causing the cancellation of the debate. Please stop, people.

I'm glad they're not corssing the picket line - regardless of what the writers make, if the networks make money from their work by showing it online (and they do), the creators of that work deserve a portion. Period. In order to support their attempt to be paid for the use of their work, candidates are correct in not crossing the picket line.

Also, to whomever said most americans view the strike as frivolous, you're apparently not paying attention. Most Americans support the strike - about 63% to be exact.

Folks, this isn't about the Writers Guild of America strike against Hollywood over residuals.

This is about CBS News writers who have been working without a contract for 2 1/2 years. They're members of the WGA, too, but their dispute is completely separate from the Hollywood strike. And they aren't on strike yet, though they've authorized their union locals to call one if CBS continues to dodge negotiations, and they were planning to picket the studio where the Dems were going to debate.

The announcement from CBS doesn't make that clear, and CNN didn't do their homework on the issue, thus we get the error claiming that the debate cancellation was because of the "continuing writers strike."

Why should the writer's strike affect the debate? It is not entertainment.
The Writer's guild should either make an exception or outside writer's should be used. Why do you need writers for a debate? Have a college
educated moderator write the lines.
"We will now begin the debate." Wow that was tough. Took me all of 2 seconds.

Once again the Democrats get screwed over something so stupid.(2000,2002,& 2004)

I am glad to see that the candidates refuse to cross the picket line.

I guarantee you this, if the NRA had had a line in front of the UTUBE Debate tonight- the stage would have been empty!

At least we Democrats stand for something other than the right to carry Uzis and Rifels, the right to fly the Confederate flag, and an abolishment of a woman's right to choose what's best for her body and her family. And they say that they represent American values?

The Debate tonight scared me! Will they NEVER learn?

How stupid are some of you people? Haha, no writers for the candidates scripted answers. Policy statements aren't written by Hollywood writers, they're written by consultants and staff of the campaign. The writers in the strike don't include every person who has ever put pen to paper or typed something on a computer. Otherwise I'd be breaking the strike by typing this comment. And, if some of you hate listening to debates and politicians so much, why are you reading a political blog?

A lot of these comments convey the attitude that the candidates are "avoiding" any debate at all, and are just using the picket line as an excuse to not discuss their platforms. I just listened to the 2 hour NPR Democratic debate online (from last week) and I assure you it was substantive.
If any of you think you're being robbed of your first chance to hear the candidates debate, take your head out of the sand and listen to the dozen or so debates from this fall that are available as streams or downloads.