VP Moderator Ifill Has Anti-Palin Bias

[Herb Schaffler]

Ifill should be removed as the moderator of tonight's debate. She is too biased in favor of Obama and against Palin as you can see in the following article from Newsmax. I don't like Palin so much, but everybody deserves a fair moderator. Just as Stephanopolis was unfair to Obama in his debate with Hillary, I'm sure Ifill will be unfair to Palin tonight.

VP Moderator Ifill Has Anti-Palin Bias


Thursday, October 2, 2008 11:34 AM

By: Jim Meyers

Gwen Ifill, the moderator of Thursday night’s vice presidential debate between Sarah Palin and Joe Biden, is coming under increasing fire for her apparent anti-Palin bias.
When Ifill was chosen to moderate the debate, the John McCain-Palin campaign was unaware that she has a new book coming out that expresses admiration for Democratic presidential nominee Barack Obama, “Breakthrough: Politics and Race in the Age of Obama.”
McCain himself complained on “Fox & Friends” Thursday morning: “Frankly, I wish they had picked a moderator that isn’t writing a book favorable to Barack Obama…
“Life isn’t fair.”
Ifill tipped her hand when she hosted a discussion on PBS’ “Washington Week” on Sept. 5, after the close of the Republican convention that nominated Palin.
Ifill showed a video showing Palin saying, “Here’s a little news flash for those reporters and commentators: I’m not going to Washington to seek their good opinion, I’m going to Washington to serve the people of this great country.”
Ifill sniped: “Wow, was she talking about us, or just changing the subject?”
Later Ifill said about Palin: “Lots of talk about, what, gutting caribou or whatever — I shouldn’t say it this way — gutting caribou in Alaska, which I’m sure is a fine, fine thing to do.” That drew laughter from the audience. “What I’m just saying, we heard a lot more about what Sarah Palin did for sport or what she did as a mother or what she did — than what she did as a governor actually, the actual policy decisions.”
Ifill also raised this point: “This is a weird question, but what don’t we know about Sarah Palin?”
Conservative commentator Michelle Malkin said on Tuesday that Ifill is “so far in the tank” for Obama that “her oxygen delivery line is running out.”
Ifill was cited in complaints PBS Ombudsman Michael Getler said he received after Palin delivered her nomination acceptance speech at the convention, World Net Daily reported.
Some viewers complained of a “dismissive” look by Ifill when discussing Palin’s speech, and some said she wore a look of “disgust” while reporting on the GOP candidate.
One complaint read in part: “It is quite obvious that Ms. Ifill supports Obama as she struggled to say anything redemptive about Gov. Palin’s performance. I am disappointed in Ms. Ifill’s complete disregard for journalistic objectivity.”


© 2008 Newsmax. All rights reserved.

[nohil-billy]

What a great debate. I enjoyed listening to the different opinions. Nobody scored a knockout, nobody screwed up. If this was a referendum on Sarah Palin's readiness, she passed with flying colors. She's definately fun to watch and listen to.

As for Gwen Ifill? No bias whatsoever. she did an excellent job mediating this debate. Better than most actually.

[Herb Schaffler]

[LINK POSTED BY MEMBER] Only Members Can View This No Hillary For President Forum Link.

[nohil-billy]

Thanks for the opinion from the left Herb. Did you print the first one you found? I take it you were too busy stuffing envelopes for Barr to have watched and had an opinion of your own.

[nohil-billy]

I missed this last not and I'm surprised Herb didn't post it as he likes to quote Dick Morris. Must not have fit the agenda!


Dick Morris Slaps Down Alan Colmes for 'Spewing the Talking Points' About Palin Debate Performance

By P.J. Gladnick
October 3, 2008


Your humble correspondent, as diligent as ever, carefully checked out much of the post-debate analysis and spin last evening. Perhaps the highlight of all such activity, chock full of drama, was this heated [LINK POSTED BY MEMBER] Only Members Can View This No Hillary For President Forum Link. between Dick Morris and Alan Colmes on FOX News. The first part of this [LINK POSTED BY MEMBER] Only Members Can View This No Hillary For President Forum Link. shows Morris giving effusive praise of Sarah Palin's performance in last night's debate. The sparks begin to fly soon after the two-minute mark when Colmes cuts in to robotically attempt to run through his list of obvious talking points which Morris took great offense to (emphasis mine):

SEAN HANNITY: The author New York Times best seller, "Fleeced," starring Dick Morris. Why do I know this is probably going to be the debate we agree on here? What did you think?

DICK MORRIS: Well, last time we disagreed. I said Obama won and you said he lost and the polls agreed with me. This time we both agree but we disagree with Colmes probably. This was an unbelievable win for Sarah Palin. In fact I think that it unveils a level of skill in communication that I really have not seen since Ronald Reagan. She is a superstar. Her ability to bypass the conventional wisdom of Washington. Her ability to speak in a tone, and a genre, a style that was so authentic and so outside of the mainstream. It was just unbelievable and Biden looked like he was on downers. I mean every time he was talking I was wishing that I could hear Palin instead.

HANNITY: But I gotta tell you. On every issue. On Iran. On Iraq. On energy. On the economy. On tax cuts. What I thought she did very effectively that maybe Senator McCain didn't do in the last debate, she was reminding America about the record and the statements of Senator Obama. Did you think that was effective, Dick?

MORRIS: I thought it was but I thought more effective was that she did a much better job than John McCain ever has in explaining McCain's positions. When she talked about the "all of the above" option on energy. I never heard McCain explain it that articulately. It was well down. When I heard her speak about the anti greed on Wall Street and that stuff and how it infects Washington. I thought it was just terrific. And when she said at one point in that debate, "I just don't understand how Washington works. How can you guys claiming to vote against something when in fact you are voting for it?" Over the Iraq War resolution. It was just brilliant. Absolutely brilliant. The loser in tonight's debate was Hillary Clinton because there is a new woman out there who's going to be number one in this country.

Ladies and gentlement! Please fasten your seatbelts to prepare for the fireworks explosions about to happen when Alan Colmes cuts in:

COLMES: Well as I said, she has to get elected first but anyway, Dick, some of the things she said about McCain were just not true.

MORRIS: She already has been with no assistance from her husband.

COLMES: Some of the things she said were just were not true. You never miss a chance to take a slap at the Clintons. They're not in this race. She talked about the middle class. John McCain repeatedly 19 times voted not to raise the minimum wage. John McCain repeatedly voted not to have renewable energy.

MORRIS: Alan, why do you insist on using sentiments with me to get reading practice on your talking points? Save that for Republicans who you talk to. Why don't you talk to me about it because I said...

(Crosstalk)

MORRIS: Hey Alan! You going to have me talk or have another guest on? If you're going to have me on you're going to listen to what I have to say. As far as I'm concerned in the last debate I said that I thought Obama won and this debate I think that she won. And I don't think that objectivity and fairness deserves your just spewing the talking points that you've been handed.

COLMES: I'm not spewing the talking points. I'm saying the truth about what the actual McCain record is that you're in denial about.

MORRIS: You're incredible, Alan. You're absolutely incredible. Is it that you can't think or that you only know how to read those talking points? Unbelievable performance, Mr. Colmes. Unbelievable.

HANNITY: By the way, Dick Morris, I tell you.. I've been around and watched a lot of presidential debates. A friend of mine wrote a note and I said at the beginning to our audience. This is the debate equivalent of sort of Sarah Palin's shock and awe.

MORRIS: This was unbelievable and anybody with a brain looking at it would conclude that which does not include your co-host I might add.
(Laughter)

HANNITY: All right, Dick Morris, the author of the New York Times best seller...

COLMES (interrupting): Hope the anger management works out for you, Dick.

Wow! I guess Alan Colmes felt a bit singed by the fireworks explosion he inadvertently set off by attempting to read DNC talking points without even addressing the issue of Palin's debate performance.

[Herb Schaffler]

The opinion is from a libertarian who writes for the libertarian site and magazine, Reason.

Regarding Morris's post, I wasn't aware of it.

I didn't watch the debate, there were other comedies on television that I preferred to watch. But from what I've read and heard on the morning news, I really didn't agree with either candidate on the major issues such as the bailout and using the American military as a proxy for Israel. One point that I did agree with Palin over Biden was on global warming. Biden is so convinced that global warming is completely manmade. He seems to know nothing about sunspot activity and cosmic rays and the effect they have on global warming. The point is that in spite of what Biden, Gore, McCain, and Obama think, the science is not settled. Too bad McCain doesn't agree with Palin on this issue.

[nohil-billy]

Palin Steps Up and Stuns

October 2, 2008 - by [LINK POSTED BY MEMBER] Only Members Can View This No Hillary For President Forum Link.

Expectations for the debate could not have been lower for Sarah Palin. The last of the Katie Couric interviews last night showed her at a loss to describe any U.S. Supreme Court case other than Roe v. Wade with which she disagreed. That set off a new round of finger-pointing and guffaws among the MSM.

And they have not been alone. For some time conservatives have been [LINK POSTED BY MEMBER] Only Members Can View This No Hillary For President Forum Link. , if not despondent, about Palin’s abilities. Questions remained whether she was up for the job or merely had been “[LINK POSTED BY MEMBER] Only Members Can View This No Hillary For President Forum Link. ” by poor handling by the McCain team.

The day had been another roller-coaster for the McCain camp. John McCain finally raised concern earlier in the day about Gwen Ifill’s upcoming “favorable” (actually laudatory) book about Barack Obama and the potential [LINK POSTED BY MEMBER] Only Members Can View This No Hillary For President Forum Link. . Then the McCain camp projected an air of bravado — Palin would be going on the [LINK POSTED BY MEMBER] Only Members Can View This No Hillary For President Forum Link. That was just before word [LINK POSTED BY MEMBER] Only Members Can View This No Hillary For President Forum Link. , later confirmed by a media conference call, that the McCain campaign was “pulling back” in Michigan and faced a “shrinking” electoral map.

So all eyes were trained on the debate. The question going into the contest tonight was simple: Would this be the final blow to a teetering McCain campaign or the beginning of a comeback? It seems that Republicans’ fears were overblown.

It may not have been enough to recalibrate the race, but it certainly was enough to revive her reputation. She was alternately charming, biting, and lawyerly in marshaling her arguments. She chided Biden for looking backward and harping on the Bush adminstration. She zinged him and Barack Obama for giving up on the surge. She came back with specifics on Afghanistan and dinged Obama for voting for oil breaks in the Bush-Cheney energy bill.

In short, she entirely and completely beat the spread. Her performance, given how poorly she has fared recently, was nothing short of stunning. And Biden knew it.

As for him he alternately smirked and grimaced. In general, he seemed peeved and annoyed. As his voice rose and the minutiae spewed forth he seemed to forget that he was in a debate in front of real people rather than Senate colleagues. He did have a real and compelling moment: when he choked up in recollecting the fear of worrying that his son might not survive the car accident which claimed his wife’s life.

As Brit Hume said, there certainly were no “deer in the headlights” moments for Palin. From Morton Kondracke: “I think she was feisty, informal, she referred a lot to her own life … she was forceful and she was knowledgeable. She did not make a single mistake.” As Bill Kristol noted, conservatives were “extremely happy” and she “utterly held her own.” Alex Castellanos on CNN said, “Overall this was a rough week … but tonight you saw Main Street and not Wall Street.”

Frank Luntz’s focus group overwhelmingly voted for Palin. The comments would warm the hearts of the McCain camp: “She spoke to the American people.” “She was Mainstreet America.” “I was expecting her to lose it,” confided one who then went on to praise her to the hilt. Luntz predicted a shift in the polling data. That remains to be seen.

Rick Klein from ABC’s The Note seemed to hit the nail on the head: “Nearly halfway in — where has this Sarah Palin been? She’s articulate, quick, detail-oriented tonight. Sometimes less is more.” Even liberal analysts like Marc Ambinder seemed impressed. He blogged, “Palin is adept at keeping Biden on the offensive. … She answers (or doesn’t answer) the question asked of her in a sentence and then shifts to a talking point against Obama.”

So those planning the McCain campaign funeral will have to put their plans on hold. For a campaign badly in need of a jump start they got one. In a big way. The MSM couldn’t have played their part better — beating her down, lowering expectations, and then seeing each of the tags (e.g., unsophisticated, ill-informed, clueless) upended one by one. Time will tell whether it was enough to change the race, but it was a step in the right direction for a ticket badly lacking in momentum.

[Herb Schaffler]

Posted October 2, 2008 | 11:27 PM (EST)
By Robert Shrum (This one's a liberal)

[LINK POSTED BY MEMBER] Only Members Can View This No Hillary For President Forum Link.

Sarah Palin has experience being a runner-up -- which will come in handy in November. Tonight she barely kept up. In advance, the commenteriat almost unanimously agreed on a false measure of this debate. Judging by "expectation" meant that pundits could conceivably award a faux victory if she was half-coherent and modestly informed after a cram session in Arizona. But voters apply an absolute standard, not a low water mark of expectations: With America facing two wars and economic disaster, Americans ask if a candidate is up to the job.
By any rational assessment, Palin wasn't tonight -- and hasn't been any time she's not reading a teleprompter. President Palin-- the nuclear button, recession, the health care crisis, global warming (which she doesn't believe in, as she believes in creationism) -- well, it simply doesn't compute. A part in Fargo, yes -- that office in the West Wing, no.
Everybody wondered how Palin would do. At least as important, or more, was that Joe Biden did a superb job. He deftly stopped Palin from distorting Obama's views. He won the tax cut argument-- Democrats usually don't. He won the health care argument; Palin just gave up. She wouldn't -- couldn't -- answer the questions; she wanted to talk about energy, which she's supposed to know something about, but she even lost on that . Often she didn't know or couldn't say what McCain's policy is. And on foreign policy, she must have been staring out the window when she sat down with Henry Kissinger. She "loves" Israel but can't discuss mideast realities in one inch depth. She can't even articulate basic conditions for the use of nuclear weapons.
Palin relied on topline phrases and had little command of facts. Why, she even memorized the name of the President of Iran. But it was mostly blah, blah, blah. At the end, the Obama-Biden ticket is far ahead on the big issues -- and Palin's a parrot repeating memorized phrases, not a plausible vice-president. Biden called her on it every time.
The last two Democratic VP nominees fell short in their debates; Lieberman was routed and never even fought back. Biden did the job for Democrats while Palin sounded like Kozinski's Chance the Gardener mouthing empty phrases. In successive sentences she said "there you go again" and "doggone." She talked about ordinary people; Biden eloquently showed he actually cares about the middle class. She was essentially phony and tin-eared after Biden spoke emotionally about his family -- and about raising his sons as a single father after their mother was killed and they almost died in an auto accident -- she spouted pol-talk cliches. He has a real emotional IQ; she sounds like an Ozzie and Harriett script (a reference which shows my age -- and a phony folksiness that reveals her inauthentic authenticity).
Today McCain pulled out of Michigan; the economic news worsened. The electoral map is smaller; the economy is smaller; and the odds on McCain are longer and longer. The press probably will give Palin credit for not falling down on stage. She couldn't deal with many of the questions directly or most of the facts, so she bloviated according to plan. She winked at us; the voters won't wink back at her. Pat Buchanan thinks she won. I think people still have a ######## factor-- and that means she survived even as she met the low expectations she's created. McCain gained nothing; he was the loser -- in the first presidential debate, and the vice-presidential one.

[Corvair]

It's very heartening to see these positive reviews of Palin's performance. They validate my impression at the end of the debate. Many of the pundits and spinners, some of them Republican, seemed glum or even indignant (Mark Shields) about what they had just seen. Maybe they were in shock that she did so well and were trying to pump up Biden's ordinary performance. That's all I can figure. I wanted to ask, "Did you watch the same debate I just saw?"

[nohil-billy]

There's an all out offensive to degrade everything that Sarah Palin does. On this site, Herb does the honors.

I too thought that she did a spectacular job Corvair, but some people won't give credit where due. McCain needs to turn her loose and let Sarah be Sarah.