With the vice presidential debate just hours away, there is some controversy over the choice to moderate the debate. Gwen Ifill, from the PBS program, “The News Hour with Jim Lehrer,” is being accused of a Democratic bias. Gwen Ifill is writing a book about black politicians, featuring Obama, who have benefited from the Civil Rights struggle. Some believe this accusation could benefit Palin in the debate. People are going to be analyzing not only the candidate’s answer, but the moderator’s question. Any sign of bias towards the Obama campaign and the Republicans will immediately let it be known.
Personally, I am not worried about Gwen Ifill’s possible failure to be objective. The commission on Presidential Debates knew about Ifill’s book before she was chosen to be a moderator. Her track record, in political reporting, obviously spoke for itself when moderators were being considered. I don’t think the McCain campaign should worry about Democratic bias, until it actually happens.
Thursday, October 2, 2008
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3 comments:
True that.
I don't think Mary Lahman is going to give me any points for this...
If anything, I think the McCain campaign is probably secretly happy that they will have an excuse if things don't turn out how they want them to in the debate.
I tried to find some post-debate analysis of the moderator, but I had some trouble. As far as I can tell, there was no ill projected upon her. While I was watching the debate, I did not notice any bias in the moderator at all. However, "lack of bias" should not be interpreted from "taking it easy". In my opinion, as well as some journalists and political analysts, she was far too nice. There were no immediate back-up questions to challenge what was being said by either candidate. Keep in mind that it was the back-up questions that destroyed Palin during the Couric interview. The debates, therefore, were merely an opportunity for each candidate to say the same thing and make the same mistakes, as they always do.
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