How could that matter?

(shakes head)

Gwen Ifill should have resigned from this assignment if she had any integrity at all. Obviously, she doesn’t!!

There were times when I thought Biden knew the question before she finished asking it, and his answers seemed totally prepared.
Nah, Gwen wouldn’t have leaked them to him or Barry’s campaign, WOULD SHE? Could she have mistakenly e-mailed them to Michelle O.? Nah.

Brat on October 3, 2008 at 1:36 PM

As I sat watching it with my wife I said..”it seems al least in the first 3 questions where Biden was addressed first…he answered so quickly (like without thinking) and so succinctly, that it seemed that way to me also…Imena the guy didn’t hesitate a millisecond…everyone go and watch it again on youtube and let us knwow what you think.

But here’s my real questions. Who writes and composes the questions? Where are the questions kept in their final form? Did she compose the questions? If so, with so much at stake how do we know for certain that the questions were not forwarded to Mr. Biden?

Has this issue been addressed previously?

After the debate I showed his some of the controversy over Ifill’s book. He shook his head and said, “I knew something was wrong.”

Now, she has been sick for weeks with recurring bouts of tonscilitis and strep throat and had had an outpatient procedure on her throat the day before. I tell you this because she has been out of it for a couple of days because of taking Loritab, so she hasn’t been aware of much and we haven’t talked about the upcoming debate. I didn’t even know she was aware of it much less watching.

I think that the bias was subtle in that the questions were designed to give Sen. Biden a forum in which he was comfortable. Gov. Palin did well and smacked both of them down.

She abruptly cut off Sarah 13:30 in “Now let’s move on here”. Boy was Biden smiling as Ifill slapped down Palin. You need to see it. The bias was in the looks and timing here. Now Sarah had had only 45 seconds here. And Biden was given up to 120 seconds in responses but never once cut off, except to help him out and let him continue.

Later on Ifill could see Biden was messing up on Clean Coal again and getting really hurt by Drill baby Drill. Even though Ifill had just given Biden 100 seconds she cut Palin off at 70 Seconds asking about Carbon Offsets. Biden was answering and Ifill must have thought Biden was still hurt so she helpfully said “You mean clean Coal” and let Biden continue. Some may say she cut him off but she let him continue and helped him thus the difference.

I sill wanna know what Biden said to her afterward that took her smile off of her face.

Even if Gov.Palin is weak on international relations, fine. Her strengths are energy policy and taxation, government reform and (let’s say for fun) executive decision making.Sen. Biden has some experience in taxation, though from the “imposing them on working people” perspective, rather than the “reducing them to promote productivity and generate revenue” perspective.

It seems to me that a large focus on foreign affairs and less on the taxation and energy (a huge issue) issues…let alone government reform…is in itself a manifestation of bias and an effort to skew the debate in favour of Sen. Biden.

That Gov. Palin overcame this is a fine tribute to her abilities.

Nice job Governor. Charlie Gibson and Katie Couric and the rest of the MSM/DNC cabal can pose gotcha questions and selectively edit their footage to make you look bad, but they can’t do shit about live TV can they? She…

subbottomfeeder on October 3, 2008 at 1:55 PM

I picked up on that too. A little biased to give someone the first question and the last response.

Overall though, I’d give Ifill a B+ on form, and a D- on ethics.

So when someone who disagrees with you says, “Come and let’s talk on neutral ground.” Don’t assume that the ground is truly neutral.

She cut Palin off several times, just as she was hitting her stride — but I’m not sure whether that’s a sign of bias.

Oh yeah. Your first goal as a person who has book sales riding on the outcome is to try to abruptly knock the target candidate off of her stride as early in the debate as possible. You want a key point where you feel momentum shifting in her direction, especially if powerful points are being scored for McCain at the head of the ticket. Then the interruption needs to appear legitimate (I doubt in this case it was, for it seemed unnatural and panicked) If not called on it, then it’s a win-win-win-win where you blunt their specific message at that moment, break momentum, possibly fluster them for a while, potentially darken their mood for the whole evening by sending a powerful message of your arbitrary control…and of course sell more books!

IFILL DID THAT PERFECTLY. Roll the clip. It appears she was only able to do damage control for Obama in this case, but we don’t know how being able to finish that sentence would have propelled Palin mentally.

Basically Ifill’s bias throughout the night was the equivalent of subtle yet clear racial bias – which of course is partly what it is. She has a stake in a book about a black president because of the novelty of his partial blackness. A 100% white president isn’t going to lead her to write her book about the “Age of McCain.”

Funny, didn’t hear her Ifill tell Palin that.