The Debate

First off, the moderator.  Ifill is writing a book called “The Age of Obama” that will be released on Inauguaration Day.  Estimates are she will make an extra $400K if he wins.   That is a huge and obvious conflict of interest and she should have either declined to moderate or not published the book.  The fact that she was barely even criticized for her decision to proceed speaks volumes about accountability and integrity in journalism today.

I think Palin held her own, but should have won easily.  She needs better handlers.  What struck me most was how unprepared Palin was to attack Dems on their culpability for the subprime crisis, but there were numerous other issues that also should have been attacked and were not, such as Obama’s broken promise to take public financing, his connection to William Ayers, and his long association with Rev. Wright.  They call her Saracuda, but they arm her with marshmallows.   She should have annihilated Obama/Biden on the energy issue (even though Ifill, oddly enough, never asked a question on the issue where the GOP position is much more popular) with Obama/Biden opposing not just nuclear and new drilling, but even clean coal (depending on what day of the week it is, and who they’re talking to).

Biden made numerous factual misstatements, some of which demonstrate his ignorance of the job (such as not knowing the VP is always President of the Senate, or claiming that we kicked Hizbollah out of Lebanon) and some which he likely knows aren’t true (McCain did not vote for that tax increase Biden claimed he did), and made several statements that were deliberately misleading (such as arguing McCain was for deregulating FNMA and Freddie Mac, when in fact it was Democrats like Barney Frank who were demanding they be allowed to back the subprime loans that have gotten us in this mess).  If Palin had made any of these mistakes we’d all be hearing about them this morning, but of course,the press has said very little about them because they so badly want Obama to win.

It’s also become clear Obama is going to be allowed to parse his way out of any uncomfortable position unchallenged.  As in the POTUS debate, Obama’s promise to meet unconditionally at the Presidential level with various hostile and repressive dictators like Kim Jong Il and Ahmadinejad was spun down to the notion there would be low-level diplomatic contacts that might lead to such meetings. 

Sadly, there is as little accountability for Obama/Biden as there is for Ifill, and their essential untrustworthiness is going totally unremarked.  With the press derelict in their duty, they will likely succeed in fooling Americans into believing taxes will only be raised on those making $250,000 or more, and when taxes are actually raised on everyone making $50,000 or more (i.e., pretty much everyone who pays taxes), you can bet that promise will be as forgotten as President Bush’s “Mission Accomplished” non-statement was remembered.

UPDATE:  Ace has more gafftasticness.  And how the hell did Palin not mention Jim Johnson and Franklin Raines?

UPDATE: BTW, I conceded this election to Obama and the press months ago. At this point, I’m resigned to higher taxes, a new Fairness Doctrine, government-run health care, and war crimes trials for Bush, Cheney, and anyone admitting to being a “neocon.” I just hope new EPA chief Al Gore doesn’t make driving my Corvette illegal.