While I still would have recused myself if I was her, I believe Ms. Ifill was fair and asked very interesting questions.
Gwen Ifill, a PBS anchor, selected to moderate the Vice Presidential has a clear conflict of interest and should immediately remove herself from the debate. She has a book scheduled to come on inauguration day of next year that has glowing remarks about Obama. Moreover, her book stands to gain more monetarily by Obama being elected which would make the book more bankable.
The issue here has nothing to do with liberal or conservative bias. We all know that 90%-plus of the media are self-avowed Democrats as shown in many studies. Republicans have always dealt with that.
There is nothing wrong with a journalist writing a book about something she knows and about which she can report. The problem is that the book is clearly pro-Obama and here is the Amazon listing…
The problem here is that she now stands to gain financially from Obama being elected which makes her ability to moderate the debate in question.
Even if she pounds hard on Biden, it would be seen skeptically as her over-compensating.
It is in the interest of both campaigns and Gwen Ifill to remove herself from this debate.
The mere appearance of impropriety will color everyone’s ability to discern the questions and the quality of the answers. That must be removed from this debate.
By the way, as a Palin supporter, I would think this disclosure about Ifill actually helps Palin because it will have a chilling effect on Ifill’s questions. However, it is important that these debates come off appearing as fair to the American public or it will be a useless folly to even have the debate.
To all you Obama supporters, what if the shoe were on the other foot?
I will follow-up on Friday with whatever happens.
I can understand the Bush hatred or "Bush derangement syndrome" from those on the left. I know I had no small bit of disdain for Bill Clinton.