Edwards cancels UB appearance

I wrote last month that it seemed inevitable John Edwards would back out of his scheduled Sept. 26 "debate" with Karl Rove at the University at Buffalo: "I'm going to go out on a limb here, and say that UB has a better chance of upsetting Missouri in football on September 20 than of actually seeing an Edwards-Rove debate the following Friday."

But as of yesterday, the Buffalo News was reporting that, according to university officials who had received assurances from the ex-senator's staff, Edwards "still plans to appear at the University at Buffalo later this month, despite keeping a low profile since acknowledging an extramarital affair."

Well, it turns out I was right:

Edwards released the following statement to UB [on Thursday]:

“I’ve decided to avoid any public engagements until after the election in November. Nothing is more important than electing Barack Obama and Joe Biden. I don’t want my appearance at these events to be a distraction from the important issues of the election, or from the important purpose of these meetings.” . . .

UB is working to get another Democrat of national stature to replace Edwards and debate Rove on issues involving the presidential campaign, said Dennis R. Black, UB’s vice president of student affairs.

The university was disappointed by the Edwards cancellation, Black said, because only Wednesday his representatives had confirmed his commitment to the Sept. 26 engagement.

“We’re dealing with politicians,” Black said, “so we should be used to flip-flops.”

Heh.

In other news, hey, UB did look pretty good against UTEP last week! Can they stun Pittsburgh, at Pittsburgh, tomorrow? The Panthers are 0-1 against the MAC!

UPDATE: Edwards will be replaced by Wesley Clark. (Hat tip: Barb.)