Why did the McCain camp agree to her being the moderator? She hasn’t exactly been hiding the fact that she’s writing this book.

my only guess is that they didnt do any research into her, and missed the fact that she was working on a book. it isnt even due out for another 4 months, and not being one in the publishing industry i cant say how far along her book shouldve been. from what i hear they signed off on her before vps were even picked, so at the time it might not have been an issue.

either way i think she should be replaced.

if she favored obama, i wouldnt care. hell id expect it knowing who she works for, but the fact that she has a financial stake in his being elected is a bit too far.

Well, I doubt she’ll be replaced. These reporters and the candidates spend a lot of time rehearsing.

I read a quote from Giuliani saying he’s cool with it.

“All my experiences with her have always been very positive,” Giuliani said on a conference call. “I think she is a very honest, decent journalist. I have no question that she will be perfectly fair in the way she asks the questions.”

We can also assume no matter how neutral Ifill is, if Palin does poorly it will be the moderator’s fault.

hahaha. because the press has been doing nothing but sheltering her from scrutiny.

unless your referring to me, in which case ill point to my assessment of the last debate.

either way, that issue could easily be avoided by replacing the moderator. both sides win.

I was speaking of the conservative pundits and everyone in the McCain campaign team. It doesn’t matter what the moderator does, if Palin does poorly it’s going to be Ifill’s fault.

That’s probably why the moderator hasn’t been replaced: If Palin does surprisingly well then the headline reads “She overcame amazing odds!” if she does poorly “The Debate was rigged! The moderator was out to get her!”

It’s a win/win for the McCain camp either way, the news cycle will switch to away from the economy.

They should replace her with Don Rickles. That would actually make me want to watch.

I say replace her, just so we don’t have to listen to all the whining over it from right wing republicans (sorry…cough…”independents”).

Watching her attempt to answer some of the most basic questions that have been posed to her in these gauze lensed faux Barbara Walters interviews, and watching her deer in the headlights response to those most basic of questions (What newspapers or magazines do you read? Name one piece of regulation your running mate has advocated? How the fuck is it possible for anyone above the level of functionally retarded to not be able to answer these questions?), I have every confidence that if it’s anyone other than Sean Hannity or Hugh Hewitt asking her questions like “Governer Palin, can you tell me if it’s difficult being so awesome and having liberals spending their days hating you?” that she’s going to have the same responses. So yeah, I agree with you. Put pretty much anyone in there.

It’s even clear at this point to a good chunk of highly partisan republican pundits (George Will, Kathleen Parker, David Brooks, etc.) that have come out and said that this woman is not ready for the job and that McCain made a massive mistake picking her. So yeah, I agree. Change the moderator. Change the moderator several times over.

My dad hopes she turns out like a college student. You just study and study and study while books of knowledge is forced into your head in such a short time that by time comes for you to perform, your brain is just fried. I’d watch just hoping for a meltdown, but alas, I have to work.

“How the fuck is it possible for anyone above the level of functionally retarded to not be able to answer these questions?”

I suppose its as retarded as not knowing your own educational background (…cough…biden). oh thats right, he sometimes exaggerates when he’s debating, i guess i should expect lots of that tomorrow night then.

the hypocrisy on this website is laughable. if this was someone like hugh hewitt or dom giodano you guys would be up in arms.

im not saying she wont mess up, honestly im not even a palin fan. i think she was a strategic pick to try and capture the female vote, just like biden was picked to ensure that obama could capture one of the largest voting blocks, older white males.

hell, at this point im even willing to concede that obama will most likely win the election.

im merely pointing out something that, had it gone the other way, everyone thats commented so far wouldve been ranting and raving about.

I don’t really remember much outrage in 2004 when Bob Schieffer, a friend and former business partner of President Bush, was a moderator for one of the debates.

i wasnt around here, so i wouldnt know. can we search that far back?

I am not sure you can search that far back, but I don’t really remember that much talk about it here or in the main stream press…It has been 4 years though, so who knows if I am remembering correctly.

Anyways this is all over nothing, McCain himself has said he’s cool with it:

“I think that Gwen Ifill is a professional and I think that she will do a totally objective job because she is a highly respected professional,” McCain said during an interview at the Harry S. Truman Library and Museum. “Does this help…if she has written a book that’s favorable to Senator Obama? Probably not. But I have confidence that Gwen Ifill will do a professional job and I have that confidence.”

Source

i think she was a strategic pick to try and capture the female vote, just like biden was picked to ensure that obama could capture one of the largest voting blocks, older white males.

I think you’re over simplifying their selections, yes each one of them will probably bring in a small amount of voters from their gender. But, I think Obama and McCain had other thoughts when making their selections. Obama needed someone a bit older and with a lot of foreign policy experience to negate some of McCains strong points. McCain needed someone that would appeal to the christian right and energize some of the younger republicans and independents.

There are probably hundreds of reasons why Biden and Palin were selected as running mates

Derrick, you’re accuding the entire website of hypocrisy when only two people other than yourself commented in this thread, one of which is one of the more liberal on the site and he agreed with you! I also agree with you and Justin and I had a conversation at lunch today that also agreed with you. There’s no question this woman should be removed. What’s anyone saying that’s hypocritical?

You could certainly accuse us of posting more liberal-minded stores than conservative minded, but I don’t think you can, for a second, argue that we aren’t fair in our demands of our politicians.

I don’t think i’ve said it, but I definitely think she should be removed.

To be clear, as I stated she should be removed just to stop them from having excuses and whining about it not because I actually do think there’s a conflict of interest. Ifill is close friends with Condi Rice. I’ve seen news clips of her BLATANTLY spinning things using right wing talking points. I could care less about either thing. If anything at this point she’s going to go so far the other way to be deferential to poor delicate flower Sarah Palin (“If she can’t handle Gwen Ifill, how will she ever be able to hand the terrorists!!”) that it’s going to be ridiculous.

Tom Brokaw is set to moderate one of the debates and was just quoted recently as saying he’s been in direct talks with the McCain camp trying to reassure them and hold their widdle hands and say “There, there…” to let them know everything will be o.k. and he won’t be mean to them. I didn’t whine about that.

And there’s a big difference between having a gaffe and answering a question wrong which I’ll conced all politicians do (ESPECIALLY Biden, who by the way I was the only one on her to admit from day one I didn’t even care for) and simply standing there in stunned silence as she’s already done on numerous occassions in response to numerous questions. In softball interviews.

Why the hell would any of us think this lady should continue to moderate the debate? I want to see the VP selection of the candidate that I support beat the other one fair and square. Even the appearance of a conflict of interest is crossing a line.

Hopefully they’ll remove this woman so I can get back to watching the fireworks. The joys of seeing Palin stumble around as one of the most incurious, stupid creatures on the national stage. And the joys of watching Biden flap so much weightless hot air out his mouth that he accidentally solves the alternative energy crisis by running twenty minutes over his allotted time.

OK now you guys are just piling on Gwen Ifill to be ‘fair’

(instructions: add fuel to fire!)

Man oh man was she ever biased. I’m sure it’ll be all they’re talking about tommorrow: how biased that Obama-loving moderator was.