Last Night's Debate

I nominate ABC News debate moderators Charles Gibson and George Stephanopoulos for the worst performance by political journalists in a starring role in modern American political history. After 45 minutes of last night's debate, the questions from the alleged journalists had covered bitterness, Rev. Wright, bitterness again, Rev. Wright again, dodging bullets in Kosovo (I guess that passed for equal opportunity bullshit), and then, to top it all off, a question about Sen. Obama's relationship with Bill Ayers, who was a member of a radical fringe group 40 years ago. Then Stephanopoulos, a former Democratic Party apparatchik in the first Clinton administration, bated both candidates to publicly take the "no new taxes" pledge, one year before the Bush administration's massive tax break for the rich (enacted on the eve of war) is about to expire.

Only after the third or fourth commercial break and nearly an hour into the show did the first question come about one of the top three issues on the minds of American voters: Iraq. The economy was passed over quickly to move onto gun control. And unless I missed it while taking a bathroom break, the issue of health care never came up.

I logged onto the ABC News website after the debate and wrote a quick note in their feedback form. I politely informed them that I will never, ever watch ABC News again. Shameful.