Did anyone else know that there was a Republican debate last night?

It was a "Values Voter Debate". Whatever that means. The top four candidates did not show, but they had podiums with their names on them, and at several points during the debate, moderators and audience members would direct questions to the empty podiums, followed by silence. How faux-poignant. Huckabee is said to have "won" in a landslide (I think they actually did exit-polling of the audience). I did not watch the debate (I'm not even sure it was televised), but as I'm reading the reports, I'm thinking... that might not be something Huckabee will want to advertise.

High-profile contenders Rudy Giuliani, John McCain, Mitt Romney and Fred Thompson all chose not to participate, though each had an empty podium with his name displayed on stage to emphasize his absence.

"When you run for president, you can run but you can't hide," quipped WND Editor Joseph Farah, moderator of the Values Voter Debate, prompting a large round of applause.

Oh please. Yes, they didn't show because they were SCARED to answer tough questions! Yeah, that's it.

Farah noted a second debate had been planned for next week to query the Democrats, but all of the office-seekers from that party declined to participate.

"Make your own judgments about that," he said.

Okay, here's my judgment: They're simply not going to waste their time being asked questions like "Why do you want to kill babies?" when no one in the room is going to bother voting Democrat anyways. I don't blame them.

The whole "ignore us at your own peril" thing is so ridiculous to me. Anyway, I'm not surprised that I haven't seen any victory-brag posts on the Huckabee blogs I check. (Yes, I check Huckabee blogs. Different post.)