Gwen Ifill - VP Debate Moderator
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| Thu, 10-02-2008 - 1:15am |
Debate moderators were chosen in August. If McCain camp had a problem with Ifill as moderator, they've had a looooong time to object. No, Ifill will be one of many excuses they can use when Palin bombs.
Re: Gwen Ifill's book, one needs to look no further than the conservative Washington Times, which published an article about said book on JULY 23rd, long before either potential Veep had been selected. I do not know when Ifill was chosen to moderate this debate, but the fact of the matter is that any idiot in McCain's camp could have googled Gwen Ifill and received this information and had they thought it a "conflict of interest" requested another moderator two months ago.
To those saying the debate has been "fixed", well - um - the debate hasn't even taken place yet. Hmmm, apparently you don't have much confidence in Sarah Palin. You shoul dbe cheering her on instead of preparing for failure.
tsk tsk

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If Obama wins, the book will be in higher demand.
>>> Yes, she did have that responsibility. And McCain had the responsibility to find out more. Both screwed up.
Wrong. It was up to Iffil to be honest...she wasn't...and for the Debate Committee to vet her...they obviously didn't. It's NOT the responsibility of the McCain campaign.
Sopal
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>>If Obama wins, the book will be in higher demand.
That's basically what you said before. I'm asking why you think so.
>>No, but a book about black politicians and the accomplishments of Obama is going to be in demand when the first black politician is elected to the presidency.
Or it could be in high demand because he loses the election. The book is about blacks in politics. Not how a black man wins the presidency. I believe that the book is relevant regardless, since the book is about history itself, not a particular outcome in history. I'd like to know specifically why others believe that it will be more relevant if he wins. Couldn't the book illustrate why he didn't win? (Not specifically but through the lens of history.)
Laura
>>It's NOT the responsibility of the McCain campaign.
Why wasn't it the campaign's responsibility to make sure the debate was fair? They negotiated the terms of the debate, including approving Ifill. If they're now saying it was unfair, they should have done a better job looking into Ifill's recent work. And apparently that wouldn't have been hard. It wasn't a secret.
Note that I'm not saying they were wholly responsible. Ifill shirked her responsibility as well.
Laura
Great piece from Newsweek on this very topic - Pre-Spin.
http://blog.newsweek.com/blogs/racetothefinish/archive/2008/10/01/the-biden-palin-debate-pre-spin.aspx
Here are some of the preemptively deflationary spin lines:
She has the ability to give each candidate the questions she wants, which can easily mean giving Biden questions that he will have no problem answering, and Palin questions that could be a problem for her.
I highly doubt an acomplished and well respected journalist as Mrs. Ifill would put her career and reputation on the line
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