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The Vice-Presidential debate between Sarah Palin and Joe Biden takes place in St Louis Thursday night. NBC had Andrea Mitchell file a preview and Ron Allen return to Biden's hometown of Scranton, where he is working an solidifying white work class support for the Democratic ticket in Pennsylvania. Mitchell called Biden "experienced and talkative--critics say too talkative" while she quoted Palin's "fumbling" answer to CBS anchor Katie Couric Tuesday on her favorite newspaper and magazine titles: "All of them…any of them that have been in front of me over all these years."
Mitchell did point out that Palin had more than two dozen debates during her successful run for Governor of Alaska "often scoring points with her personality." She then turned to Breakthrough: Politics & Race in the Age of Obama. That is the title of a book being written by PBS' Gwen Ifill, the journalist selected to moderate the Veeps' gabfest. Does Ifill's desire for successful book sales next January mean that she has a personal financial interest in an Obama victory in November? "Ifill's colleagues and the McCain campaign say she is a respected professional," Mitchell insisted.
All Tyndall Report readers are encouraged to rate Ifill's performance during the debate on our Citizen's Media Scorecard hosted by freepress.net. We attracted a panel of almost 5,000 for last Friday's debate. We need as many volunteers as possible, especially Republicans, so please forward this link to everyone, especially GOP partisans.
I think she asked questions fairly. I did not keep track of the number of times each candidate was asked the first question. But it seemed fair.
I think it was interesting how many times that Biden called her Gwen - by first name - initiating the thought that they were close friends - no formality at all - in a way to me it seemed in proper to be so familiar with the moderator of the debate.
On one occasion, Ifill allowed Biden to interrupt Palin.
On another occasion, Ifill interrupted Palin's response almost
in mid sentence. Overall, Ifill seemed about as fair as could
be expected under the circumstances.
In general, Ifill was her usual professional self. One thing I did find upsetting, however, was her choice to let Sarah Palin off the hook when she asked what programs her ticket would eliminate or restrict given the current economic crisis. Palin failed to answer this question in any manner and was not held to accountable for her deliberate avoidance. That was disappointing especially given the amount of times Jim Lehrer tried to get any credible responses from Obama and McCain for the same question last Friday.
Chad Zimmerman
Portland, OR.
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