The Guardian's Niall Stanage unloads on ABC and its circus barkers in a column full of disappointment and derision. He poses a question: The dumbest debate in America?
What is it about Philadelphia? The city last month hosted one of the most impressive moments of the presidential campaign to date: Barack Obama's forthright speech on race. But last night, the very same venue - the National Constitution Centre - witnessed one of the worst events: the dismal ABC News debate between the Democratic candidates.
The contrast could hardly have been starker. Obama's March 18 speech was sophisticated, honest and, above all, respectful of the intelligence of his audience. Last night's debate - or, more specifically, the performance of its moderators, Charles Gibson and George Stephanopoulos - was by turns superficial and disingenuous.
Mr. Stanage describes the first hour of the campaign as full of fatuous and tired questions about the candidates' choices for VP, Jeremiah Wright, the cling thing and whether Senator Obama lacks the requisite love for America to be standing there at all.
The relentless triviality was only one problem, however. The more serious failing was the willingness of Gibson and Stephanopoulos to volunteer as water-carriers for a conservative attack machine that, fearful of Obama's crossover appeal, is already working overtime to tarnish his reputation.
Gibson placed ABC's imprimatur on one of the more obviously silly stories - the suggestion that Obama's disinclination to wear a stars and stripes flag pin could render him unelectable.
"As you may know, it is all over the internet," Gibson intoned earnestly, as if hoping this might absolve him from any responsibility for raising such a gaseous point during a critical prime-time debate.
When Senator Obama admonished them for focusing on crap and the audience erupted in the first applause of the night, the tag team was undeterred.
But Stephanopoulos, undaunted, immediately took up the baton to investigate what he absurdly categorised as "the general theme of patriotism" - or supposed lack thereof - in Obama's personal life.
One would have thought Stephanopoulos might have acquired some perceptiveness about the methods of rightwing smear merchants in his previous job as a senior advisor in Bill Clinton's White House. Apparently not.
Having already asked Obama a risible question about his former pastor ("Do you think Reverend Wright loves America as much as you do?"), Stephanopoulos now pressed him on his "relationship" with Bill Ayers.
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There is, of course, no evidence whatsoever that Obama harbours even a smidgen of sympathy for Ayers' radicalism or the Weather Underground's worldview. And, more generally, if the views of every person with whom a presidential candidate has ever interacted are to be judged as possible disqualifiers from office, America's political future would look very impoverished indeed.
Obama struggled to restrain his frustration when Stephanopoulos injected the phoney issue into the debate.
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But there are reasons to believe that Obama's claim last night - "the American people are smarter than that" - may be proven true this year.
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And, most encouragingly of all, the public response to last night's awful performance by the debate moderators was immediate and vociferous. As heckling erupted at the debate's end, Gibson smiled wanly and said, "The crowd is turning on me." Within three hours of the debate's end, the ABC News website had received over 7,600 comments about the evening's events. The overwhelming majority were negative.
Stephanopoulos and Gibson deserve every bit of opprobrium being thrown their way. They delivered a noxious blend of smear, innuendo and diversion.
But it looks like the same old political junk food no longer satisfies an electorate hungry for real change.
American Idol had more substance last night than ABC's embarrassing display of hackery. I hope the Senator is correct in his assessment of the American people.