Gwen Ifill's Condescending Response

Yesterday was Gwen Ifill day at Drudge as he ran her photo and headline almost all day when it was revealed that she has a new book about Obama coming out and is set to moderate the VP debate tonight. Although the presence of the book was revealed earlier in September, it was not revealed to the Debate Commission when she was asked to participate, and her response to the criticism was basically a "screw you" to her critics:

“I’ve got a pretty long track record covering politics and news, so I’m not particularly worried that one-day blog chatter is going to destroy my reputation,” Ifill told the Associated Press. “The proof is in the pudding. They can watch the debate tomorrow night and make their own decisions about whether or not I’ve done my job.”

Perhaps a little humility would have been better...something like "I should have told the debate commission about the book, and if they feel a change is necessary, I'll cooperate". Instead she decided to blame the messengers for bringing up the subject.

As Jim Geraghty suggests, will we be able to figure out if her "job" is to be an impartial moderator, or to be a salesman of her new book?

John McCain wasn't very critical of the decision yesterday, but took a bit of a harder line this morning:

Hours ahead of the vice presidential debate, Sen John McCain (R-Ariz.) criticized the selection of PBS's Gwen Ifill as moderator because she is writing a book called "The Breakthrough: Politics and Race in the Age of Obama."

“Frankly, I wish they had picked a moderator that isn’t writing a book favorable to Barack Obama — let's face it," McCain said on "Fox & Friends." "But I have to have to have confidence that Gwen Ifill will handle this as the professional journalist that she is. ...

“Life isn’t fair, as I mentioned earlier in the program.”

That's kind of a clever response because he's hinting that the debate won't be fair. We'll see.

By the way, it's now two-day blog chatter, and depending how impartial she is tonight, it could be several more days of blog chatter. She's on the hot seat tonight as much as Palin or Biden. And just as a reminder of the stakes facing Ifill regarding her book, let me reprint this quote from Charles Krauthammer:

"If Obama is inaugurated she's hit the lottery. If McCain is inaugurated, she's just published Dewey beats Truman at book length."

I'm sorry, but I just don't trust her to be an impartial moderator. She has too much of a financial stake in the outcome of the election.