Gov. Bobby Jindal and Lt. Gov. Mitch Landrieu have asked the top four presidential contenders to debate in New Orleans this summer. A joint letter sent to Sen. John McCain, Gov. Mike Huckabee, Sen. Hillary Clinton and Sen. Barack Obama asks the candidates to attend "a Town Hall meeting" in June and assures them that "New Orleans is open and ready for business." The letter reads in part:
We believe that it is incumbent upon national figures and those who seek the office of the presidency in particular to shine the national spotlight on the people and places in our country which deserve to be highlighted. The people of the Gulf Coast continue to recover and rebuild from the devastating storms of 2005 and those efforts are an incredible window into the many challenges facing not just New Orleans, Louisiana, and the Gulf Coast, but our entire country.
In November, the commission on presidential debates passed over New Orleans as a site for debates, claiming that the city didn't measure up. The Times-Picayune called the decision "a shameful rebuff" and The New York Times wrote that "a disservice has been done to the electorate and the nation." The letter also adds:
As you know, the presidential Debate Commission did not select New Orleans as one of their official sites. This was a terrible misjudgment and their reasoning that the city was somehow not ready to host a large scale event was flat wrong.