Charlie Gibson and George Stephanopoulos took a giant crap on democracy tonight and then had the gall to ask Barack Obama why he doesn’t wear a flag-pin on his lapel, as if this were an issue of interest to Democratic primary voters in Pennsylvania. As early as 1:23 pm this afternoon there was a diary at Daily Kos detailing how George Stephanopoulos was going to use his time to fire off right-wing attacks against Sen. Obama.
George spent time yesterday taking Notes on Sean Hannity’s Show
When Hannity asked about the first question below about Ayers and whether George had plans to ask such a question, George replied, “Well, I’m taking notes now Sean.” It did actually sound like he was pausing to take notes. And Hannity continued to feed him more:
- Ask Obama about his relationship with Ayers and WeatherUnderground and Axelrod’s comments, “They’re friendly”
- Ask Obama why he attended the Million Man March
Later Steph went on a lesser known show (at least to me) and was asked these questions. Here’s the Audio
Same Question
[For Obama] William Ayers is a man who was head of the Weather Underground, a radical group in the 60s and 70s, set bombs at the Capitol, set bombs at the Pentagon, and was quoted in the New York Times oddly enough, ironically on September 11 before obviously the events of that day, saying that he didn’t go far enough, and he doesn’t regret it at all, and he wished he could have done more. Your campaign has described your relationship with William Ayers as “friendly.” How could a man running for the presidency of the United States possibly have anything to do with, or have anything but disdain for a man who did what he has done to this country?
Stephanopoulos responsed to the last query: “It’s a damn good question.”
But it wasn’t a good question. Asking him about agricultural subsidies would have been a good question. Asking him about his vision for NASA would have been a good question. Hell, even asking him why he likes orange juice more than coffee would have been a better question than asking him why he has ever associated with a professor of English at Northern Illinois University.
For the first fifty-two minutes of the debate all discussion was devoted to right-wing attacks that each candidate will have to contend with in the fall. They never got around to asking any questions that were specific to Pennsylvania. Because they wasted so much time pushing Sean Hannity’s talking points, they never got around to discussing education or health care or the environment or the price of gasoline or the housing crisis or loss of jobs. They didn’t discuss the global food shortage or unrest in Haiti. They didn’t discuss the president’s admission that he authorized torture or the upcoming FISA renewal fight or Gen. Petraeus and Ambassador Crocker’s recent testimony on Iraq.
Charlie Gibson actually used a question to misleadingly advocate for lower capital gains taxes, rather than asking for the candidates’ opinions on them.
There was no disclosure that Stephanopoulos worked on Bill Clinton’s 1992 campaign and served in his administration. Nor did they disclose that he was getting his questions from right-wing radio shock jocks.
For all the talk of elitism, the most elitist thing of all is to fail to use debate time to try to educate the public about policy and why it matters. There is nothing so condescending as to deny the public facts and then assume they will base their decisions on trivial issues like whether a candidate knows someone who knows someone that did something embarrassing sometime in the distant past.
This was the single worst example of political journalism that I have ever seen. It was also one-sided, as the vast majority of the first hour was dedicated to attacking Obama for the sins of people other than himself.
But I care less about any unfairness to Obama than I do with just how vapid and useless the debate was. It was a disgrace and it is truly a great justice that the moderators were lustily booed at the end by the studio audience.
We should all boo, and boo so loudly that no network ever dares to do a repeat performance. Call ABC News at 212-456-7777 and tell them what you think of tonight’s debate.