Why all the GOP debates??? "free media coverage" they are going cheap with free TV

[underpants]

Analysis shows GOP race is cheapest in a decade
http://content.usatoday.com/communities/onpolitics/post/2011/12/gop-primary-campaign-spending-/1?csp=34news

The top nine major GOP candidates so far have spent a combined $53 million, compared with $132 million spent four years ago. In the 2004 Democratic primary eventually won by Sen. John Kerry, those candidates spent $58 million in the first three quarters of 2003. And 10 GOP candidates spent $68 million through Sept. 30, 1999, Bloomberg reports.

One key factor for the relative stinginess of the 2012 GOP primary season: Candidates are forgoing expensive TV ads. Mitt Romney, for example, is just starting to crank up his advertising in Iowa and New Hampshire.

The upshot, Bloomberg says, is that the 11 nationally televised debates so far have given candidates with deep pockets (such Romney) and those with more modest fundraising (like Newt Gingrich and Herman Cain) a bigger shot at free media coverage.