It’s The Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown

“Hourslong discussions”:

The liberal advocacy group founded by Mayor Bill de Blasio of New York has abandoned its plans to hold a forum in Iowa focused on income inequality, bringing an abrupt and anticlimactic end to his initial efforts at shaping the economic debate in the 2016 presidential campaign.

Geri Prado, executive director of the Progressive Agenda Committee, said in a statement on Tuesday that the forum had become unnecessary, because inequality had already moved to the center of the campaign conversation.

The committee had circulated invitations to leading Democratic and Republican presidential candidates, asking them to participate in a public event at the University of Iowa on Dec. 6. The deadline for candidates to respond to the invitation was to be Thursday, according to a copy of the invitation.

As of Tuesday, the University of Iowa had not received notification that any candidate had accepted the invitation, Jeneane Beck, a university spokeswoman, said.

[. . .]

The cancellation was met with expressions of relief by some members of Mr. de Blasio’s inner circle, which was deeply divided over whether the mayor should continue pursuing a forum that many had come to view as a folly.

Mr. de Blasio, a Democrat, had been engaged in hourslong discussions with advisers over how to handle the forum, according to a person familiar with the conversations who requested anonymity to speak frankly about the mayor’s political pursuits.