VP Debate Discussion

[iNow]

Not to rehash what seems to me to be a closed issue, but I am a bit surprised at all the articles about Gwen Ifill today. The questions over her integrity regarding her book were pretty light before the debate, but after the debate ended the issue suddenly heated up, even though all the mainstream accounts I've read gave her pretty high marks for fairness. Neither party has anything to complain about, so why all the rhetoric?

 

It's the modern "weapon of mass distraction."

 

Talk about the media and the moderators instead of the candidates and the policy. It's the modern day equivalent of gay marriage or abortion during election time.

[Phi for All]

And if I hear her say "Maverick", "Bipartisan", "ruffled feathers" one more time, I'm going to puke.

Oh yeah, maverick. Named for a guy who refused to brand his cattle, so he could claim any cow that didn't have one was his by default.

 

The Dems have done a pretty good job tying McCain to Bush, but why haven't they popped the maverick balloon by reminding everyone that Bush is the ultimate maverick? They seem stuck on the idea that McCain isn't a maverick because he voted along Bush lines so often.

 

They need to start wearing these and agreeing that McCain is a maverick and Palin is a pitbull.

 

[bascule]

I wonder if this is because of the suspicion of bias brought up before the debate. I'm betting she didn't want to appear unfair, even though it would have been perfectly fair to steer her back on subject.

 

It was odd seeing her rather flustered reaction on Meet the Press. It was clear Ifill was angry at Palin for dodging the questions, but her reaction to it was "What was I supposed to do? Steer her back on track?"

 

Is there some rule against that I'm not aware of? Shouldn't the debate moderator step in at that point? I don't get it

[iNow]

She probably didn't want to open herself up to attack from Faux News and the likes of the Limbaughs in the world.

[Pangloss]

Wait, Ifill was fielding criticisms about her performance on MTP? Dayum, I missed that.

[iNow]

Wait, Ifill was fielding criticisms about her performance on MTP? Dayum, I missed that.

 

Easy enough to correct that:

 

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/21134540/vp/27034267#27034267

[Pangloss]

That was great, thank you. I think conservatives might look at that and decry liberal bias, but I think those comments actually support the notion that she WAS giving Palin a chance. She gave her every opportunity to blow us away with wit, intelligence, insight, and anything else she might be able to bring to the table. There just wasn't any such available.

 

By the way, I thought SNL was funnier this week. Fey seemed to kick it off well with that bit about the zingers. And that C-SPAN sketch was a total gas -- if you missed that, you actually missed the best political gag of the night. NBC had it up on the SNL site but then took it down, so it's not available at the moment. They do that a lot, and they have no search function and the site is impossible to use, but that's what happens when you put lawyers in charge of technology. Oh well.

 

---

line[/hr]

By the way, just to show how unusual these times are, usually when a popular television show spoofs a political figure, the television show far and away gets more public viewing than the politician's regular appearances. Not so today!

 

This week's episode of Saturday Night Live garnered a 7.4 share, which is something like 8 or 10 million viewers.

 

The Vice Presidential Debate brought in about 70 million viewers.

 

Wow.

 

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/27052947/