Keep this in mind while watching the VP debate
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I was looking so forward to the VP debate until I heard about who is the moderator..... her name is Gwen Ifill.
One would THINK they could find someone who wouldn't be biased as to who the winner would be....
She wrote a book that is coming out on January 20th which just happens to be inauguration day of the next president of the United States. The title of Ifill's book? "The Breakthrough: Politics and Race in the Age of Obama."
If Obama doesn't win, how revelant do you think this book will be? She has thousands if not millions of dollars in sales of this book riding on him winning.........
I just really didn't think the media could be more one sided, but they have proven me wrong once again!!
I heard about this. It's totally ridiculous to have someone so obviously biased be the moderator.
It's always going to be biased. I was getting ready to tape the presidential debate and made a comment about which channel I should choose. My husband replied "Which slant do you want on the 'analysis' following the debate?"
From the Christian Science Monitor, a comment by candidate Senator John McCain:
"In fact, the campaign doesn’t seem to care. At least, Senator McCain didn’t seemed concern this morning while speaking to Fox News correspondent Carl Cameron.
“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. “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.”
If McCain isn't concerned, why should anyone else be?
As for taping the presidential debate, Kay, yes, the analysis can be slanted. But the debate itself - no. It was what it was, and how you perceived the candidates during and after the debate is up to you.
If Ifill does not do a fair job, in the eyes and ears of the people watching the debate, we'll all know the minute it happens.
Well honestly, I think McCain is likely more concerned than he is willing to publicly say. I can't believe he thinks it is a fantastic idea for her to be the moderator. I am also willing to bet that if he did raise some objection to it, it wouldn't go over well with the Dems and he would be ridiculed for it.
I do hope that since all this attention has been brought to it, that she will go out of her way to do a good job and be fair about it... But honestly, that is in the eye of the viewer. I might think she was fair and someone else might think she wasn't. Neither is wrong and it is possible for her to be unfair and have the dems never admit it. And even if someone did admit it wasn't fair, the damage would have already been done.
I just don't think it is a good idea!!
Anyone else watch? Any opinions - about the candidates? about Gwen Ifell's moderating?
I swear, if I see Sarah Palin wink one more time, I think I'll scream. I am guessing she does it to make sure we "get it" (the joke, or the point). I get it, Sarah. Please, stop winking.
I get the winking too. And I've had it with maverick.
I thought it was a good debate, it didn't make me change my vote. Palin drives me nuts, I don't know if it is the winking or they way that she seems to have this fake niceness about her.
I used to like McCain, but when he chose her as his running mate it really upset me.
I watched to be informed; my mind is already made up and will not change. (See if you can guess who I'm [begrudgingly] voting for.)
I noticed that Palin talked very quickly when it had to do with the issues, but slowed down when she was talking rhetoric. I couldn't stand the winking and, honestly, I wasn't endeared to her and her "down home" you-betcha/fer sure persona during the debate. I wanted straight talk, not one-liners. I wanted answers to questions, which she stated at the beginning of the debate she was not going to do, at least not the way it was expected of her. Frankly, I don't think she answered any direct question asked of her!
I can't wait to watch Saturday Night Live and Tina Fey.
I think Biden won the debate, but they both did well. I wasn't sure what to expect of Palin, but she held her own, twitching eye and all. 
I also didn't notice any obvious bias by Gwen Ifill. I would have never known her political leanings if I hadn't read before the debate that she was/has written a book about Obama.
Actually, Sunny, the book is about at least three African-American politicians during the current era. I suspect that, given what has happened in the past couple of years, her publishers thought that having "the age of Obama" in the title would help it to sell better. And yes, if Obama is elected, it will certainly sell a lot better.
I've been around a long time - I'll be 70 in December. I watched live coverage when those little girls walked up the sidewalk at Little Rock High School, and the various marches in the South, and the riots in the North (we Northerners are NOT exempt from prejudice). When "colored people" (that's what polite people called them then) started moving into my neighborhood in Southside Chicago in the early 1950s, I took a cake over to my first Black neighbors the day after they moved in, and someone set a fire under their back porch and our back porch the same night.
I find it absolutely amazing that in my lifetime we have come from Truman issuing a presidential order to desegregate the U.S. military, through Brown v. the Board of Education, all of the desegregation marches, the Civil Rights Act, and to the point where a person of color is an absolutely serious candidate for President of the United States who is, by all the polls, reasonably likely to be elected. I have to tell you, whenever I think of this history - such as when I'm typing it here - tears come to my eyes. I am very proud of this country, and one of the things that makes me proud is that by and large most of us, individually and as a nation, have overcome racial prejudice in most ways and most places.
I thought Palin did well w/Biden and I think the moderator went out of her way to try and be unbiased. Honestly, the first part of the debate, I was having a hard time listening to Palin because she had a piece of her bangs caught on her eyelashes and every time she blinked it moved. It must have been driving her crazy. The winking and such didn't bother me.
I stand corrected, Ginny. Thanks for the explanation. Even if I hadn't known about the book beforehand, I still would have expected the moderator to be neutral.
Sunny - sorry - I have absolutely no right to "correct" you. I only learned about the book on Wednesday and only know what I've read in the NYTimes and other on-line publications. So what I typed is really all I know about the bookk plus some speculation about the publisher's thinking/motives.
I must say I was hoping for a bit of "oomph" from Palin. She didn't really "wow" me at all. And I think the debate showed that she lacks a lot of knowledge on foreign affairs. I'm hardly a political person and there are still things that confuse me when discussed, especially on foreign affairs, but I just feel that she doesn't have any idea how huge the role of a VP is. I think she's too busy looking through rose colored glasses. I hate to say that too because when McCain originally announced her as his running mate, I was pleased with what I had read online about her.
Can I just say that Biden has a charming smile? LOL It think he did well debating Palin and was very proper.
And to this day.... I don't know who i'm going to vote for. I don't care for Obama one bit. He just gives me the creeps. But Palin can too.
Right now my main focus is on the war on terrorism and our economic crisis. I don't care about anything else. I can see BOTH parties points and why they want to do what they want to do. There are pro's and con's to both. I just don't know which one is the lesser of the two evil's, because it's obvious that someone is going to get Sc***ed in order to turn this country around. Middle America or Corporate America? Which one will have better long term results? It's hard for me to decide for myself because I have no idea. Politics is new to me.....
I agree with Ginny and Rayelle.. the winking and "maverick"
I almost stopped watching simply because I was tired of hearing her refer to herself and McCain as "mavericks".. ok already.
I am not sure who I am voting for but I am definitely leaning one way. Time, and a little more information, will tell =)
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