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biden gaffes leave dems with mixed emotions

Gee, an African-American journalist writes a book about the changing generations of black politicians so she's automatically too biased to moderate a debate?

Excuses, excuses--of course, if I supported Palin I'd be worried too--the woman can't even say what newspapers and magazines she reads when asked by friendly folk at Fox.

We know what Obama reads

From IBDWeb Link
"Obama, who once represented ACORN in a lawsuit against the state of Illinois, was hired by the group to train its community organizers and staff in the methods and tactics of the late Saul Alinsky.
ACORN would stage in-your-face protests in bank lobbies, drive-through lanes and even at bank managers' homes to get them to issue risky loans in the inner city or face charges of racism."

Yawn.

By the way:
"Famed conservative columnist George Will told a gathering of Senate aides on Monday that Gov. Sarah Palin is "obviously" not prepared to assume the presidency if necessary.
Will has already been critical of the other half of the Republican ticket, calling McCain's handling of the financial crisis "un-presidential" just one week ago."

I know what you mean, TRCTJS, but George Will is not a rat, he's one of an almost extinct species - principled conservatives.

Obama was elected to the Illinois Senate by the famed Chicago 'machine' which has changed radically in the last twenty years. It was 'left' but now is 'far left'. But Chicago still has the same 'motto'. "Vote early and vote often." According to the news today, Chicagoans are being urged to vote by absentee ballot because the 'streets' are too dangerous for walking to the polls. Go figure.

Ms. Ifill's financial interest in the success of the book might reasonably be thought to be linked to its subject's success in the general election.

Therefore, if for no other reason than the potential appearance of a conflict of interest, Gwen Ifill should publicly disclose her book's impending release and title to the entire nation at the very beginning of tomorrow night's debate. To do anything less would be unethical.

I think it's very, very likely that Ms. Ifill is extremely sympathetic to the Obama candidacy, and that he's likely to get her vote if she votes (and she has every right to; I don't hold that journalists ought to recuse themselves from casting personal votes).

That an anchor for PBS and a member in excellent standing of the mainstream media should be to the left of center in her personal politics is, at this stage, very much a "dog bites man" story.

The issue, however, is whether Ms. Ifill can successfully put aside her bias in her performance of her role as debate moderator.
What's been so dreadful this election season in watching figures like Chris Matthews and Keith Olbermann beclown themselves repeatedly as shills for Obama is that they're not even making any effort to hide their biases, much less to rein them in and be fair.

Yes, I was yawning over this, too...as long as she is fair and objective in the debate, who cares?

But, when I heard about the conflict of FINANCIAL interest, I changed my mind. It is wrong.

BTW, TRCTJS, typical that you fail to mention that the SAME Mr. Will ALSO said that Obama's policies would be bad for America. So, he is like so many of us..we aren't excited by McCain, ( too far to the left for us), but Obama with a dem controlled Congress would tank our nation in just a couple years, leaving our kids with even more mess than McCain would leave.

I doubt sincerely anyone at PBS is "left of center"..."left of center" is more like a JFK. Our "center" as defined by MSM is NOT center, it is already "left".

Center is ...government programs ONLY for those incapable or caught by circumstances beyond their control, not for those who choose badly.

Center is...Against abortion, but recognizes the "lesser evil" in some cases

Center is...For marriage between a man and a woman, but recognizes the need for equal protection as marriage for gays

Center is...Pro-work policies, but recognizes the need for protection against exploitive work environments.

Center is...for making the border non-porous, AND integrating those illegal aliens who are already here.

Center is...for free-market, but acknowledges the need for government intervention to prevent anti-free market abuses, (such as the formation of monopolies), or prevent anti-constitutional work/hiring practices.

Center is...for freedom of speech, but recognizes that we need to protect under 18 from harmful speech/ideas ( like the Man-Boy Association's propoganda, or some disgusting books/websites/movies that can invade the child's mind)


You get the idea. Unfortunately, we now have left, center-left, and far left as a paradigm in this country. The Right no longer exists.

"The right no longer exists." Except, um, in the Supreme Court and in the conservative base that embraced Sarah Palin becaues she was their kind of woman. What the heck are you talking about, the Right doesn't exist. Has it evaporated in the last 6 months? Or do you mean the Right no longer exists as an alleged majority in this country?

Seems that the right wing pundits have decided to work the refs to try to get preferential treatment. This is a common tactic in sports. After the competition, the right wing will blame the refs (or maybe Clinton or something that happened 30 years ago:-).

Hmmm...read it all again.

The Right no longer exists in reference to the post...as a political entity. There is no "Right" presidential campaign, and frankly, you prove my point by actually believing that there is a "right wing" on the Supreme Court. Sarah Palin is, indeed a little "right" of center" as defined in my post, but please note that even she is only right of center in her PERSONAL beliefs on abortion only. In all else she is "center" as I defined it.

You missed my point. You have to realize that this is a country that thinks Bill O'Reilly is "Center"...and he is NOT. He is definitely left of center. The whole country has shifted to the left in the last 30 years so that the definition of right and left has shifted also.

Think about it.

It is "far right" now to want to control our border, send back out those who have landed in any of our jails. When did common sense become "far right" in the Democrat and Media mind? Even just 20 years ago "far right" was close our border and send EVERYONE here illegally back to their home country.

It is "far right" now to want to defend the oppressed and bring democracy to all tyrannical nations, even by force. Uh..gosh..just 15 years ago is was Democrats who did that with Bosnia.

It is "far right" now to want to believe in any religion at all, yet Bill himself repeatedly was filmed going to church, Bible in hand, and the last icon of Democrats, Carter, was a literalist Christian who talked about sinning from "lusting in his heart".

I needn't go on. Those who want to think about it will get it, those who don't, won't.

The party who owns the definitions owns the political process, I suppose.And, Republicans, for better or for worse, are old-fashioned enough in general to believe in civility in public decorum, so don't go around embarrassing "the other side" by calling them on their shifting sands. So, the sleeping public gets lulled ever more into changing definitions.

A great example recently of changing definitions is the changing definition of "marriage" and the re-framing of those of us who want only to keep the definition between a man and woman, yet give all rights and responsibilities of marriage to gays but with a different name, as somehow "right wing haters".

Or, as is becoming ever more known, the re-defining of those who were trying to change the Fannie and Freddie regulations to be more responsible as "lynchers" and "racists" because the rule changes would limit lending to people with virtually no hope of paying back. Go check out who was lying about F and F and who was trying to fix them. Yet, not one word in the MSM..who is in charge of definitions?

There's a lot of negotiating behind the scenes. The McCain campaign agreed to the list of formats, locations, and moderators. If Gwen Ifill's acceptable to both candidates, then that's fine with me.

Ifill has lost credibility as a journalist as she did not inform the commission of her financial conflict of interest, she is a pariah and should be fired by PBS, any decent person would recuse herself in this scandal, either way she is toast, good riddance.

"The host of PBS'"Washington Week" and senior correspondent on "The NewsHour" said she did not tell the Commission on Presidential Debates about the book. The commission had no immediate comment when contacted by The Associated Press. A spokeswoman for John McCain's campaign did not immediately return phone and e-mail messages".

I note that Miz Ifill's first instinct was to play the race card.
I guess it's what's got her to where she is today.

Perspective,
After reading your definition of "center", I'd suggest you look into moving to Wyoming, the reddest of the red states.
Seriously.

Let's call this what it is--excuse making for Palin's performance ahead of time. Oh ye of little faith. Actually, I think she'll flounder through somehow--lots of gibberish, but a lot of people will sort of be tuning it out anyway.

Ifill's book ain't exactly a secret folks. McCain's people knew about it when they approved her as moderator.

Perspective,

Republicans are well-mannered--on what planet? McCain isn't. Both he and Obama were in the Senate the other day. Obama crossed over to the Republican side to politely greet McCain, Lieberman and Martinez. McCain could barely bring himself to say hello. (Lieberman and Martinez were both polite.)

I've noticed that people define "center" as whatever their own politics are.

the book is not about Obama--it is about african-american politicians and there is a chapter about Obama. Anyway, McCain's people agreed to have her as the moderator and her book was no secret.
Need something new to fulminate about? I would be more worried about Palin being turned into a crying, smeared lipstick, quivering bowl of jello by the end of the debate tonight.

We're suddenly hearing these complaints because Republicans know Palin will not do well in the debate. By shouting like this, the conservatives hope to scare Ifill away from asking Palin difficult questions.

If that fails, they hope this whining will provide a preemptive excuse for a poor performance by Palin.

Seems convoluted to me. Why not just pick someone who is competent?

The last refuge of scoundrels... has become blaming the media.

McCain and company are in dire straights - they've pulled out of MI and are fighting in NC now. It's all going downhill fast