Wednesday, October 01, 2008
Veep Debate Moderator In The Tank With Obama
The woman scheduled to moderate Thursday night's vice presidential debate between Sen. Joe Biden and Gov. Sarah Palin has written a tribute book , The Age of Obama, to Sen. Barack Obama, which is scheduled for release on Inauguration Day (note the foregone conclusion that Obama has already won the election). Gwen Ifill of PBS' Washington Weekly wouldn't respond to reporters questions. It's been observed that she has been very dismissive of Gov. Palin in her reporting. The McCain-Palin ticket must demand that Ifill be removed as the moderator. She has a financial and personal stake in electing Sen. Barack Obama and Sen. Joe Biden. She has forfeited her right to moderate this debate.
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19 comments:
The Palin/McCain campaign agreed to and approved Gwen Ifill as moderator. They could have vetoed her if there were substantial objections...
Republican fear is palpable that your doe-in-the-headlights VP candidate is going to bomb, so you're already looking for blame.
Even if Ifil gives the most fair shake possible you're going to cry foul.
I'm very curious to know just what kind of questions you think are appropriate to ask of Mrs. Palin.
McCain's people were unaware of her book until this week. Vox, So what about Joe Biden now saying he was shot at in Iraq--the latest in a couple hundred stupid gaffes he's made this year. No, the media can't talk about any of Biden's gaffes. But when Hillary exaggerated being under enemy fire when she was in Bosnia, it was front page news for days. I only ask for some sense of fairness.
Hillary didn't exaggerate. She lied.
Biden is a also a dolt, but there was no video evidence to show on tv. So what do you want? Katie Couric to stand in front of the camera and do a 5 minute monologue on how he wasn't shot, and actually ammended his story without being confronted by an embarrassing video?
I have to side with vox above. What kind of questions would you deem appropriate to ask Sarah Palin?
Well, Vox, I'm pretty sure she won't say that FDR was president in 1929 and went on tv to reassure the public. You sure you want to put that Biden gaffe up against anything Palin might say?
Hillary gave a detailed, personal account of being under fire at a specific airbase in Bosnia that was proven not to be true. Biden made a general statement that he was shot at in Iraq, which is not improbable.
But seriously, what type of questions should Gwen ask Sarah tomorrow?
Oh, yeah, Vos, we Republicans are in fear regarding Palin. (Sarcasm.) Please, please, go after her. There is nothing I would like more than this to be an election of Palin v. Obama rather than McCain v. Obama.
AI:
Why do you exaggerate so much in your fervent pursuit of Barack Obama's political destruction? You say Gwen Ifill has written a "tribute" book to Obama, when he's not even the sole focal point.
It would had taken TWO SECONDS to go on Amazon (or to even real your OWN link), you would have gotten the REAL title:
The Breakthrough: Politics and Race in the Age of Obama
Here's the Amazon description:
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.
Ifill argues that the Black political structure formed during the Civil Rights movement is giving way to a generation of men and women who are the direct beneficiaries of the struggles of the 1960s. She offers incisive, detailed profiles of such prominent leaders as Newark Mayor Cory Booker, Massachusetts Governor Deval Patrick, and U.S. Congressman Artur Davis of Alabama, and also covers up-and-coming figures from across the nation. Drawing on interviews with power brokers like Senator Obama, former Secretary of State Colin Powell, Vernon Jordan, the Reverend 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.
So I guess because Ifill interviews Colin Powell, this must be a Powell tribute book, too, and since Powell is a Republican who once worked with McCain, Ifill shouldn't be able to moderate because she has a financial interest in McCain now, too.
Or so would go your ridiculous logic.
Do more homework next time before you put up your RNC talking points designed to make Americans think the only reason Palin would tank it was because of bias, not incompetence.
www.ipopa.blogspot.com
Attempting to link Obama to the civil rights movement is a slap in the face at those who have really been a part of it. Obama is not African-American; he is Arab American. Check out his family history in Kenya a little more closely. Or had you not noticed his name is Arabic, just like his father's? You can bet you wouldn't feel the same way if the book's title referred to the "Age of Palin" and discussed her role in achieving equality for women in this country.
Seeing as the book was announced in July, the moderators chosen in August, why didn't McCain object to her selection back then? Why, because he wanted a "liberal media" conversation in order to distract from Sarah P's incompetence.
Barack Obama is ARAB-American? HUH? Have you ever seen a photo of his African family? They are obviously not Arab, a light-skinned race.
Gary, you were born in Indiana and are an American citizen but should somebody assume you are a subject of the Queen of England because your last name is "Welsh"? Have you ever been to Cardiff, the capital of Wales?
Why do you assume a dark-skinned African like an Obama is Arabic just because of the name? A quick check of ethnography would show you there are very dark-skinned people all over Africa with Arabic names who are obviously not Arabs. Only US radio personalities and other xenophobes would make such an ignorant mistake as to assume the Obamas are Arabic just because of their name!
I've worked with a number of African immigrants in my practice, Wilson. I can tell you that Africans with Muslim heritage distinguish themselves from other Africans, even if you don't see a difference in their skin color. Their traditions and practices are quite different. The use of Arabic names is one way they distinguish themselves from other Africans. Note that when Obama's cousin, Odinga, lost his election last year in Kenya, his supporters set some Christian villages afire in protest. Odinga advocates the adoption of Sharia law in Kenya.
Come on...this is a ridiculous, ludicrous charge. The book isn't apparently even about Barack Obama. It's also a ridiculous snow job that McCain's campaign knew nothing about this.
Mitch Daniels has Syrian blood. Does that make him Arab-American?
Does he hide it, Jon. From Mitch Daniels Wikipedia entry:
"Daniels is a first-generation Syrian American, and is a supporter of the Arab-American Institute, having been honored by them for his work in the community."
Here's how Kenneth Lamb explains Obama's ancestry:
"Mr. Obama is 50% Caucasian, that from his mother. What those who want Mr. Obama to write history by becoming "America's first African-American president" ignore is that his father was ethnically Arabic, with only 1 relative ethnically African Negro - a maternal great-grandparent (Sen. Obama's great-great grandparent, thus the 6.25% ethnic contribution to the senator's ethnic composition.).
That means that Mr. Obama is 50% Caucasian from his mother's side. He is 43.75% Arabic, and 6.25% African Negro from his father's side.
Put another way, his father could honestly claim African-American ethnic classification. He was the last generation able to do so.
Sen. Obama could honestly say, "My father was African-American." Racist presumptions led an Ivy League admissions committee, and lazy "newspapers of record" factcheckers, to presume that if his father is African-American, then Sen. Obama must be African-American also.
But it doesn't work that way. Racist presumptions coupled with sloppy vetting don't turn a lie into the truth.
Sen. Obama is one generation too far removed from the ethnic African Negro input to make the same claim as his father, Harvard's Admission's stamp of approval notwithstanding.
As you can see for yourself, Sen. Obama's African-American ethnic claim, when properly researched and documented, is a lie.
The question no one wants to answer - particularly Mr. Obama and his supporters, is, "Why do you think he has an Arabic name? Why does his father have an Arabic name? Why does every ancestor on his father's side have an Arabic name?"
The answer is obvious: They have Arabic names because his father's side of the family tree is Arabic.
Need proof? Research the Kenyan records for yourself. You will find that his father was officially classified as "Arab African" by the Kenyan government.
But in America's current political climate, that truth is heresy; that truth is "an inconvenient truth." It is the political equivalent in our time to what Galileo's scientific pronouncements were in his time: it is true, but nobody wants to know the truth because the lie is so much more comforting.
That is why detractors of this truth will do everything to denounce it, except submit to the discipline of actually researching it.
There's a reason for that: it proves he is not sufficiently Negro to earn classification under American law as an African-American.
For Sen. Obama, telling the truth means he will give up all the accolades about being the first African-American president of the Harvard Law Review, an accolade that relies on a sleight-of-hand in job titling that changed the name of the top job from Editor to President.
If stated in its absolute truth, Mr. Obama was the second person of color to run the Review. He was beat to the Review's top spot by a true African-American about 60 years before Mr. Obama showed up for classes.
Again, a very inconvenient truth."
AI says:
"The question no one wants to answer - particularly Mr. Obama and his supporters, is, "Why do you think he has an Arabic name?"
No, the question no one wants to answer - at least on this blog - is who cares what percent Arab Obama is? Seriously, do you think he's going to use the U.S. military to enforce Sharia law in America?!?!?!?
I agree with your general notion that racist presumptions don't overcome the factual geneology, but how the majority treats people forms their racial identity in America, and it always has. If your skin is dark enough that you wouldn't have been able to eat at a lunch counter in Selma before the 1960s, you ARE a black man.
As for Daniels, he didn't write his Wikipedia entry, so that wouldn't say anything about whether he's "hiding" his Arabic ancestry. But here's what would --his campaign website bio.
http://www.mymanmitch.com/about_mitch.html
Find the reference to Daniels' Arab ancestry in that, please. Oh, wait. You can't. Hmmm.
Oh, here's another thing that would tell you -- Daniels' speech to the Republican state convention delegates, which you attended.
Give me the line he said about his Arabic heritage there. Oh, wait. You can't. Double hmmm.
Daniels will take Arabic money and court Arabic votes, and he'll get publicity for doing good things for Arabs in Arabic (AND, OH NO, MUSLIM!!!) publications, but when have you ever heard him identify himself as an Arab at a county fair or Republican dinner?
So, yeah, he IS hiding it. And the reason he's hiding it is because, even though his ethnic heritage has NOTHING to do with his ability to govern, there are people like you who will keep pointing it out as if it's a dirty little secret, just like you do with Obama.
You have said before that one's ancestry and religion have nothing to do with his/her ability to serve in office. I think you're kidding yourself because you would not fixate on this with Obama if you didn't care.
Quite frankly, it would be more intellectually honest if you'd just give one of those, "We're a Christian nation, and I won't vote for somebody who isn't" speeches we hear a lot in the Republican rank and file (and, shamefully, among a lot of Democrats as well).
But I think the real truth is, YOU don't care about a candidate's ancestry, but you know that millions of Americans do, and, sadly, you want to defeat Obama so badly, you'll play on America's worst fears about people who are different than them.
www.ipopa.blogspot.com
So we're not looking at the first African-American nominee, but the first Arab-American?
OK.
I found it interesting to read about his recent family history. I did. That's the stuff that trivia is born of.
But we really need, as a people, to stop putting such a tremendous emphasis on our family histories. We really need, as a people, to put aside this desperate need to categorize and simplify absolutely everything.
Knowing that Obama is more Arabic than African because more of his family is Arabic than African really don't affect Obama's views on health care, the budget, or even foreign policy. Right? So what's the point of this, other than for trivia?
ipopa, To my knowledge, Daniels has never tried to use his ethnicity for political advantage. Obama clearly uses his claimed "African-American" status for political purposes. When Obama was in the Illinois Senate, some of his African-American colleagues called him out on, saying he wasn't a true African-American. I'm all for getting this race thing past us, but the Democrats won't let it go. We are constantly confronted with it every time we attempt to make any criticism of a person of color. We are called racists. The Democrats insist on promoting someone for a political office strictly based on their race. We are being told by persons on the Left there will be a race war in this country if Obama doesn't win. Every time anybody questions anything about him they are accused of being a racist. The same goes with Andre Carson just like it did with Julia Carson. Obama campaigns explicitly as a "Christian" while insulting our intelligence by insisting that anyone who has bothered to study his family geneology and notes his Muslim heritage is simply a religious bigot. Yet, he wants us to go back generations on his mother's side to connect himself as a distant relative of Brad Pitt and Dick Cheney. We aren't even allowed to trace his father's family back one and two generations removed to point out they were Muslim.
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