Tank, Schmank
Michelle Malkin is upset that Gwen Ifill, who is set to preside over tomorrow’s Vice Presidential debate, is in the tank for Obama. I say, tanks are a given. What is not a given is an actual, financial conflict of interest. The friggin’ book is called “Breakthrough: Politics and Race in the Age of Obama,” and it’s scheduled for release on what will either be the first day of the Age of Obama or the first day of the rest of his life. Of course it’s an embarrassingly fawning title, and the content is probably no better, but never mind that. The book is friggin’ about Obama. A perfectly even-handed book about Obama, or even a virulently anti-Obama book, would have exactly the same problem: how well it sells depends on who wins the election. The end.
Unless, of course, you’re Gwen Ifill, in which case you think anyone who even talks about the issue must be a racist.
October 2nd, 2008 at 12:39 am
You know, if I were Ifill, I would have at least had the decency to announce the book a couple of months before the debate, so that if anybody had a problem with it, they could have mentioned this with plenty of time to spare, rather than waiting until a couple of days before the debate, when they found out that their preferred candidate can’t even name a single magazine or newspaper that she reads. But maybe that’s just me.
[And, for whatever it's worth, I think they should replace Ifill, but if I were a Palin supporter, I'd file that under "be careful what you wish for."]
October 2nd, 2008 at 7:06 am
I agree that Palin is not necessarily better off seeing Ifill replaced, particularly if she got replaced by an equally “unbiased” reporter who was just as much in the tank for Obama ideologically but didn’t have an actual financial stake in the outcome. Maybe better to have an obviously biased moderator to kick around in case the debate doesn’t go well. And if it does go well, there’s only so much an Obamabot watching her future book sales vanish before her eyes can do about it, anyway.
Pending the debate, I’m reserving judgment as to whether Palin *couldn’t* name a single news source she reads, or whether she saw where Couric’s question was effing with her in return. I hope the latter, though admittedly I have no evidence of that (yet?).
October 2nd, 2008 at 10:22 am
As I said on my site, this is just pre-emptive excuse making by Palin’s supporters. If she does poorly, it will be because the moderator was “biased against her.” If she does well, it will be in spite of that fact. It’s largely about expectations management.
Although that’s probably not the whole of it. A lot of this, I’m sure, is just an attempt to work the refs. Maybe they’re hoping that Ifill will go all softball to “prove” that she’s not biased. That’s a possibility, too.
Of course, I expect Brokaw’s ties to McCain will be of no concern whatsoever to Right Blogistan when that debate rolls around…
October 3rd, 2008 at 3:13 pm
OK, I’ll bite. What is the connection between Brokaw and McCain (aside from the obvious fact that both are Democrats)?