The Hiller Instinct: Debate Dilemma

As debate-gate swirls around them, both Romney and O'Brien appear to want to open-up future forums:

Mitt Romney, (R) Gubernatorial Candidate
"As a matter of fairness, I think it's a good idea to have the representatives of the smaller parties also included in the debates and I support their being included in those debates."

Shannon O'Brien, (D) Gubernatorial candidate
"I would like to see more debates than just two more and I would be very happy if we would have the opportunity to create a whole new forum that Mitt Romney and I and the other candidates running for office could have more debates to talk about the issues."

But there's the rub:

Mitt Romney
"I'm not going to be doing more debates myself; we're doing one every other week...and I also want to get out and campaign and shake hands and listen to people."

Shannon O'Brien
"The facilities that are sponsoring the debates, they've set the rules"

Mitt Romney
"I think the answer is to include the members of the Green Party and the Libertarian Party. That's a fine option."

Romney and O'Brien do agree tomorrow's debate will be different from their first last week:

Shannon O'Brien
"They're telling me to stick to the issues; they're telling me to be myself and they're telling me to remind people why I'm in public service."

Mitt Romney
"The last debate felt like I was calling in my coordinates for incoming shells. I'm hoping that instead we can talk about our vision for the future and the plans we have to make Massachusetts a place of great opportunity."

Whoever is in tomorrow's debate, let the record show 7News never voted to exclude any candidates. While we are a member of the media group broadcasting tomorrow's debate, we were excluded from the final decision limiting the number of debaters.

So, for the record: 7News believes that since there are five candidates who've qualified to be on the ballot, five should debate.