Ifill’s Cousin Finds Palin Offensive

Tim Graham at Newsbusters notes:

Here are more signs Sarah Palin could face an uphill battle with PBS host Gwen Ifill. Professor Sherrilyn Ifill of the University of Maryland Law School, whom Gwen Ifill has lauded as “my brilliant baby cousin,” has written that black women are not buying Sarah Palin’s “false claims to feminism” and is portrayed as too perfect: “when women who are privileged present as though they have it all together, it’s offensive to black women.”

I am sure the whole family is unbiased.

Chicago Politics Coming to Washington? No Thank You.

Dear Illinois Leadership – All Democrats:

Senators Obama and Durbin,
Rep. Jesse Jackson, Jr.
Governor Rod Blogojevich
House Leader Mike Madigan
Attorney General Lisa Madigan (Mike’s Daughter)
Mayer Richard M. Daly (Son of Mayor Richard J. Daley)

Perhaps the U.S. should pull out of Chicago?
– Body Count: 292 killed (murdered) in Chicago …. 221 killed in Iraq.

Perhaps you will do better with the Social Security System? I don’t think so.
– IL State Pension Fund $44 Billion in debt, worst in country.

Perhaps your tax policy is better? Not unless you get high grades the higher taxes are.
– Cook County (Chicago)sales tax 10.25% – highest in the nation.

Perhaps your education policy is worthwhile? Not really.
– Chicago school system rated one of worst in the country.

This is the political culture that Obama surrounded himself with in Illinois and he’s going to “fix Washington”?

Perhaps not.

-AP

McCain Thinks Ifill is Unfit for Moderating

Mike Allen of Politico reports:

Hours ahead of the vice presidential debate, Sen John McCain (R-Ariz.) criticized the selection of PBS’s Gwen Ifill as moderator because she is writing a book called “The Breakthrough: Politics and Race in the Age of Obama.”

“Frankly, I wish they had picked a moderator that isn’t writing a book favorable to Barack Obama — let’s face it,” McCain said on “Fox & Friends.” “But I have to have confidence that Gwen Ifill will handle this as the professional journalist that she is. …

“Life isn’t fair, as I mentioned earlier in the program.”

Ifill is moderator and managing editor of “Washington Week” and senior correspondent of “The NewsHour with Jim Lehrer.” She is viewed as one of Washington’s fairest journalists.

Okay, so let the bets begin. Does the MSM play the race card and say that McCain wouldn’t complain if she was a pretty white woman or does the media go and paint McCain as a whiner using the “Life isn’t fair line”? Perhaps a combo of both

VP Debate Moderator Ifill Releasing a Pro-Obama Book

From Michelle Malkin:

My dictionary defines “moderator” as “the nonpartisan presiding officer of a town meeting.” On Thursday, PBS anchor Gwen Ifill will serve as moderator for the first and only vice presidential debate. The stakes are high. The Commission on Presidential Debates, with the assent of the two campaigns, decided not to impose any guidelines on her duties or questions.

But there is nothing “moderate” about where Ifill stands on Barack Obama. She’s so far in the tank for the Democrat presidential candidate, her oxygen delivery line is running out.

In an imaginary world where liberal journalists are held to the same standards as everyone else, Ifill would be required to make a full disclosure at the start of the debate. She would be required to turn to the cameras and tell the national audience that she has a book coming out on January 20, 2009 – a date that just happens to coincide with the inauguration of the next president of the United States.

The title of Ifill’s book? “Breakthrough: Politics and Race in the Age of Obama.” Nonpartisan my foot.

Ifill’s publisher, Random House, is already busy hyping the book with YouTube clips of Ifill heaping praise on her subjects, including Obama and Obama-endorsing Mass. Governor Deval Patrick. The official promo for the book gushes:

“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…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.”
Ifill and her publisher are banking on an Obama/Biden win to buoy her book sales. The moderator expected to treat both sides fairly has grandiosely declared this the “Age of Obama.” Can you imagine a right-leaning journalist writing a book about the “stunning” McCain campaign and its “bold” path to reform timed for release on Inauguration Day – and then expecting a slot as a moderator for the nation’s sole vice presidential debate?