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Gwen Ifill Will Not Commit Career Suicide
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At the time of this writing, it is 12:56 PM, on October 2, 2008, the day of the Vice-Presidential debate. There has been much talk, about Gwen Ifill's supposed conflict of interest as moderator of the debate because of her forthcoming book, The Breakthrough: Politics and Race in the Age of Obama. I, a 2008 McCain supporter, know of Gwen Ifill through her appearances on NBC's Sunday Morning political talk show, Meet the Press. I also learned of Ms. Ifill's book while reading her article on the Obama family in the September 2008 edition of Essence magazine (weeks before the story broke on television news reports).
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Having seen Ms. Ifill on Meet the Press and having read her article on the Obama family and seen the advertisement for the forthcoming book, this McCain supporter has no undue concern about Ms. Ifill being the moderator of tonight's debate.
When I listened to Ms. Ifill on Meet the Press, she did not appear to be biased as other journalists on MSNBC and CNN. In this voter's view, Ms. Ifill gave her comments as a political observer with objectivity. Upon learning the date of her book's release (by reading Essence magazine), the first thought that this voter has was not that Ms. Ifill was in any way trying to help Senator Obama win, but that she was betting the success of her book on the fact that he would win. The second thought was, How would a McCain inauguration affect the release and sale of Ms. Ifill's book? The point is that during my exposure to Ms. Ifill through her television appearances and her magazine article, she left no undue concern with me that she was using her career opportunities to "get Obama elected President". Ms. Ifill's work left this McCain supporter with the impression that she is a professional.
Maybe this is why Ms. Ifill was chosen as moderator for tonight's debate. If this voter had such a favorable impression of Ms. Ifill, why would others who have also been exposed to her work not get the same impression? For Ms. Ifill to use her position as moderator in tonight's debate to "throw" the debate in favor of the Obama team would be career suicide for her. Why would she do that? She has ALWAYS appeared to this voter to be a VERY INTELLIGENT woman. An intelligent person would have sense enough to know that failing to be a neutral moderator of a nationally televised Vice-Presidential debate would mean the destruction of everything one had achieved throughout one's career.
Whether or not Ms. Ifill is betting the success of her forthcoming book on the success of the Obama Presidential Campaign, this voter does not know for sure. However, before the start of tonight's debate between Governor Sarah Palin and Senator Joseph Biden, let the record show that this voter bets that as moderator of the debate, Gwen Ifill will come through with flying colors.
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