Post by Big Yogi via Columbus Dispatch

Clinton to hold rally at OSU Thursday
Participation in Cleveland debate up in air
Tuesday, February 12, 2008 8:28 PM
By Jonathan Riskind

The Columbus Dispatch
Sen. Hillary Clinton of New York will kick off her Ohio campaign Thursday with a rally at Ohio State University.

The “Solutions for America” event, to begin at 6 p.m., will be held in the French Field House at Ohio State University. Clinton will be joined by Gov. Ted Strickland and former Sen. John Glenn of Ohio.

Clinton also will campaign in Youngstown Thursday morning, although details were not available

Also, a televised presidential debate in Ohio between Clinton and rival Democratic Sen. Barack Obama apparently is a go for Feb. 26. There’s still just one problem – Clinton won’t confirm her participation.

But the debate in Cleveland to be carried by NBC’s WKYC (Channel 3) is on again – at least according two of the three parties.

An Obama spokesman and an NBC News spokeswoman say it is happening, with the NBC spokeswoman asserting that both Obama and Clinton had agreed.

A Clinton spokesman said this afternoon he could not yet confirm his candidate’s participation, however.

“Both the Clinton and Obama campaigns have accepted our invitation,” said Allison Gollust, an NBC spokeswoman.

“We committed to the NBC/WKYC debate in Cleveland – which will reach the widest audience statewide,” said Ben LaBolt, an Obama spokesman.

The Cleveland debate was put in doubt when a commentator for MSNBC, which is owned by NBC, last week used a derogatory term to refer to Chelsea Clinton, daughter of the presidential candidate. MSNBC’s David Shuster, noting that Chelsea Clinton was calling Democratic superdelegates, asked, “ Chelsea is sort of being pimped out in some sort of weird way?”

NBC has suspended Shuster and apologized to the Clinton campaign, but a Clinton spokesman said they would not participate in debates on NBC as a result. Clinton’s campaign said it wanted to go forward with a debate on CNN on Feb. 27.

The NBC debate is to be moderated by NBC Nightly News anchor Brian Williams and Tim Russert of Meet the Press.

jriskind@dispatch.com

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