Most journalists are liberals. Way more are registered democrats than registered republicans.
That is a shocking conflict of interest. Oh well.
That was actually a damn good troll. I’m almost disappointed that it didn’t work.
Most publishers are conservatives. Way more are registered republicans than registered democrats.
That is a shocking conflict of interest. Oh well.
I’d be okay with swapping the moderator at the last minute. Pretty much agree with Nate:
I think that the Obama campaign has little to lose and everything to gain by encouraging the CPD to have Gwen Ifill to pull out of moderating the VP debate.
It’s not that the right’s critique isn’t utterly transparent, but media backlash was one of the principal dynamics in motivating the Palin bounce in the first place.
But there’s another factor here too. In preparing for a debate, you are often preparing nearly as much for the “judge” or moderator as for the opponent. Both campaigns probably have a pretty good idea of what types of questions she is likely to ask, how he is likely to ask them. Palin and Biden have undoubtedly watched videotapes of Ifill moderating the 2004 debate between John Edwards and Dick Cheney.
By changing the moderator, you’re throwing everyone a curveball, and catering to the candidate who is better able to adapt on the fly. Which, most likely, is not going to be Sarah Palin.
New moderator:
“It’s a female”?
Bob, you pathetic dweeb.
Bob isn’t exactly a master of tone.
I disagree. Agreeing to a stupid demand like that would be flinching from the bitchslap. Pathetic, but there you go.
Has McCain asked for a switch? At lunch (last time I was free to listen to and read the news) McCain was saying, hey, no issue, she’s demonstrated that she’s a fair person, so no problem.
It would bad strategy to actually ask that. I don’t think the Republicans truly worry about her impartiality in the debate. But it’s a good distraction and it’ll be positive spin whether Palin has a great night or a bad night. It’s been the giant headline on drudge for a whole day?
Yup, if she does a faceplant, it’ll be because “obviously, the moderator was biased” and if she does well or even OK, “what a great candidate, even with that biased moderator working against her, she KILLED”.
As a campaign strategy, screaming bloody murder about the moderator and her new Obama ‘biography’ is a great way to divert attention away from the fact that the McCain campaign has been pressuring for this debate to allow for shorter answers and little if any interaction between the two VP candidates. This leaves Palin with the job of simply flipping through her mental rolodex of prepared, short answers with limited give and take.
If it were anyone but Bob, I’d probably agree. Or even if he’d left it alone after the initial post. But I got plenty of enjoyment out of watching him try so hard to get a bite and end up with nothing.
Of course I assume Bob has zero shame and this doesn’t actually bother him, but I can at least imagine him crying about it.
It would be funny if Ifill got insulted enough to do the opposite. She can allow longer answers and encourage interaction between the candidates (following Jim Lehrer’s lead in the first debate) and still be entirely objective.
She is a very professional and impartial reporter, but she does have a memory for insult. Just ask Don Imus.
EDIT: Looks like she really can’t change the format -
Negotiations between the McCain and Obama campaigns resulted in a 90-minute format that calls for the two candidates to stand at podiums and field questions in turn from moderator Ifill. Answers may not exceed 90 seconds, and two minutes of open discussion will follow each question. Each candidate will give a 90-second closing statement.
As far as I’m concerned Track Palin could moderate the debate, because anyway his mom would still lose.
Wow, Ifill sure blew that one, didn’t she?
She should’ve plugged her book during the wrap-up.
Yeah that was terrible. When she allowed Palin to go unchallenged on her I may not answer the questions the way the moderator wants line, I knew we had no hope of seeing a real debate. The republicans working of the refs paid off big time here.