Did we forget to mention that?
Nearly 70 million people tuned into the vice presidential debate last Thursday. It and the three presidential debates are among the most powerful political events because they are the only times both campaigns are represented on the same stage (White House meetings about the economy excluded).
Gwen Ifill, reputed PBS newscaster, moderated the Biden-Palin tete-a-tete. Just prior to the debate, we found out that Ifill is currently writing a book called Breakthrough: Politics and Race in the Age of Obama (see the book’s YouTube video), which will be released on Inauguration Day.
Ifill moderated a fair and impartial debate by all accounts. That doesn’t forgive her lack of transparency. The Commission on Presidential Debates did not comment about Ifill’s lapse when contacted by the Associated Press.
Maybe that’s because the commission has its own transparency issues. The commission has refused to make available the contract between both campaigns about the debates’ details. A spokesperson went so far as to claim that a contract does not exist. Yeah, right.
Non profit organization Open Debates called the commission’s bluff and released a copy of the 2004 contract between the Kerry and Bush campaigns. Among its 32 pages, the contract describes in detail the coin flip to determine who receives the first question and many other minute details.
A memo to both campaigns: Transparency is the new currency. Unlike our taxes, please spend it with abandon.
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