I have a busy day ahead and will comment a little more on last night's Democratic presidential debate later, but three quick things...
1. Charles Gibson and George Stephanopoulos gave journalism a huge black eye last night. The debate questions were tabloid-esque and played to the lowest common denominator of American society. With everything going on in the world - Iraq, terrorism, the economy - ABC asks about FLAG PINS?! To quote Bill Clinton in South Carolina: "Give me a break!"
2. Stephanopoulos used to work for Bill Clinton as both a campaign strategist and as a White House adviser. As such, ABC News shouldn't have let him anywhere near that debate stage last night. To let him moderate a debate in which one of the candidates is his former boss' wife was irresponsible.
To add fuel to the fire, Stephanopoulos then went on to use a right wing talking point (about Obama's very brief and very light affiliation with some 70s radical, who Hillary's husband pardoned) to punch Clinton's opponent. He put himself in the gutter with Hillary Clinton - taking on Karl Rove campaign tactics and asking questions fielded by uber-fascist Sean Hannity. It was lower than low.
3. Most of the debates of this political season were aired live across the entire country, no matter the time zone. I think ABC did the West Coast a disservice last night by airing the debate in the Mountain and Pacific time zones on tape in order to get them into the prime time hours. I wound up watching the debate live on-line, but still...the tape-delay decision just added to already wretched performance of their "moderators."
