My dictionary defines "moderator" as "the nonpartisan presiding officer of a town meeting." On Thursday, PBS anchor Gwen Ifill will serve as moderator for the first and only vice presidential debate. The stakes are high. The Commission on Presidential Debates, with the assent of the two campaigns, decided not to impose any guidelines on her duties or questions.So, just how objective do you think Ifill will be? What do you bet she has a "gotch" question or two for Palin ready to go?
But there is nothing "moderate" about where Ifill stands on Barack Obama. She's so far in the tank for the Democratic presidential candidate, her oxygen delivery line is running out.
In an imaginary world where liberal journalists are held to the same standards as everyone else, Ifill would be required to make a full disclosure at the start of the debate.
She would be required to turn to the cameras and tell the national audience that she has a book coming out on Jan. 20, 2009 — a date that just happens to coincide with the inauguration of the next president of the United States. The title of Ifill's book? "The Breakthrough: Politics and Race in the Age of Obama."
Nonpartisan my foot.
Random House, her publisher, is already busy hyping the book with YouTube clips of Ifill heaping praise on her subjects, including Obama and Obama-endorsing Mass. Gov. Deval Patrick. The official promo for the book gushes:
"In 'The Breakthrough,' veteran journalist Gwen Ifill surveys the American political landscape, shedding new light on the impact of Barack Obama's stunning presidential campaign and introducing the emerging young African-American politicians forging a bold new path to political power.
"Drawing on interviews with power brokers like Sen. Obama, former Secretary of State Colin Powell, Vernon Jordan, the Rev. Jesse Jackson and many others, as well as her own razor-sharp observations and analysis of such issues as generational conflict and the 'black enough' conundrum, Ifill shows why this is a pivotal moment in American history."
Ifill and her publisher are banking on an Obama-Biden win to buoy her book sales.
UPDATE: This story now has front page headline status on Drudge. Ifill's on notice that the viewers are aware of her connections to Obama and I'll bet she'll be a little more careful in the questions she asks and the tone with which she asks them on Thursday night.
Jim Geraghty has a suggestion how to handle obvious bias from Ifill:
It's a little late to replace Gwen Ifill as moderator of the vice-presidential debate, and McCain partisans might prefer to have a moderator with a glaring conflict-of-interest to provide a handy objection to any question Palin deems out of bounds.
"Gwen, that sounds like the kind of question one would ask if one had a financial stake in the election of Barack Obama — like a book about him coming out early next year or something."
But as if we needed any further evidence of a jaw-dropping double standard, we have to contemplate the sheer impossibility that someone who wrote a positive biography of McCain being chosen to moderate a debate.
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