That's the scene at Thursday night's minority-focused Republican presidential debate at the historically black Morgan State University in Maryland. The empty lecterns are the ones where Rudy Giuliani, John McCain, Mitt Romney and Fred Thompson would have been standing if they'd bothered to show up.
Kansas Sen. Sam Brownback, who did appear, said it was a "disgrace" that the others didn't. Former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee, also in attendance, said of the no-shows: "Frankly, I'm embarrassed. I'm embarrassed for our party and I'm embarrassed for those who did not come, because there's long been a divide in this country, and it doesn't get better when we don't show up."
For the record, all of the major Democratic presidential candidates appeared when Tavis Smiley and PBS hosted a similar debate for Democrats in June.
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