maryte wrote: 
I'm really sick of stupid people.

(not directed at you maryte)

rickhoran wrote:
I might try to stream it online, or listen on NPR.

 phineas wrote: 

if you mean go to a local pub in the USA, odds are the baseball playoffs will be on the TVs than a vp debate.

 Alafia wrote: 
Go to the local pub?

I wish I had a TV, so I could watch tonight.

 maryte wrote: 
  Do I find that next to "Dick And Jane Go To Washington D.C."??

 samiyam wrote: 
Either side could have objected to Ifill or any of the other moderators.
Like I said below I wish they would have and that Obama had agreed to it because then they wouldn't have had this cheap excuse ready.

I say give all this stuff back to the League Of Women Voters.

 samiyam wrote: 

Yeah, well, you know how we overeducated elitists can be about hiding information on the innerwebs - especially about books... 

 maryte wrote: 

whoever "The Commission on Presidential Debates" is picked the moderators.

http://elections.foxnews.com/2008/08/05/moderators-chosen-for-presidential-debates/

 maryte wrote: 
Does this sound like a "pre-planted" excuse? 

 rickhoran wrote: 

Not exactly sure, but quite certain that neither candidate gets to pick them without input from the other.

 rickhoran wrote: 
Apologies.

The story that she was going to be writing this book broke in July 2008.
The book will be published January 2009.

The fact remains that by the time Ifill was chosen to be the moderator the book was available for pre-order at Amazon.

They're going to reach for any excuse to try to make this woman seem like she got picked on.

 maryte wrote: 
good one.

how are the moderators picked?

 rickhoran wrote: 

Not sure if it was announced in 2007, but here's a news story from July of this year referencing the book.  Which means information regarding its publication has been available for months - before Obama even officially won the nomination.

 HoneyBearKelly wrote: 
not so sure that is true... i might have misread this but it implies otherwise. tell me if i am wrong.
http://apnews.myway.com/article/20081002/D93I484G3.html

 owld_skipper wrote: 
Are you kidding?

There was news about this book all over the place. It was announced in 2007.
Her publisher is featuring it in their winter catalog.

Do they not google?

But whatever.
Maybe they should have asked that the moderator be changed. And let's say that the Obama campaign agreed to that.

In preparing for a debate, you are often preparing nearly as much for the "judge" or moderator as for the opponent. Both campaigns probably have a pretty good idea of what types of questions she is likely to ask, how she is likely to ask them. Palin and Biden have undoubtedly watched videotapes of Ifill moderating the 2004 debate between John Edwards and Dick Cheney.

By changing the moderator, you're throwing everyone a curveball, and catering to the candidate who is better able to adapt on the fly. Which, most likely, is not going to be Sarah Palin.

Trust me, I think that would have messed them up even worse.

Besides taking away that handy excuse.

Play bingo while watching the debate:
http://gristmill.grist.org/story/2008/10/1/171917/937

 HoneyBearKelly wrote: 
No, it's because they think Ifill is in the tank for Obama. They didn't know about the book she is publishing about Afro-Americans in politics and which includes the Obama campaign.

We already know that the excuse is going to be.

McCain now wishes ‘they hadn't picked' Gwen Ifill to moderate VP debate.

Why?
Because she's a nee....

 samiyam wrote: 
Ha-ha! According to the post that started this thread, rules of the Sarah Palin Vice Presidential Debate Drinking Contest require that you have lots of Moosehead Beer on hand – built for Canadians, designed to challenge Alaskans.