Anyone pointing his or her browser to Drudge this morning has received a glimpse of how the McCain campaign hopes to hedge its bets on the upcoming Vice Presidential debate.
They are going after Gwen Ifill, and the headline screams:
VP DEBATE MODERATOR RELEASING 'AGE OF OBAMA' BOOK ON INAUGURATION DAY
Drudge links to a story by Bob Unruh of WorldNetDaily that explains how Ifill is working on a book that will evaluate the state of black politics, with Obama as a major subject
Gwen Ifill of the Public Broadcasting Service program "Washington Week" is promoting "The Breakthrough," in which she argues the "black political structure" of the civil rights movement is giving way to men and women who have benefited from the struggles over racial equality
The story also seeks to build a historical narrative for bias on the part of Ifill:
During a vice-presidential candidate debate she moderated in 2004 – when Democrat John Edwards attacked Republican Dick Cheney's former employer, Halliburton – the vice president said, "I can respond, Gwen, but it's going to take more than 30 seconds.
"Well, that's all you've got," she told Cheney.
Ifill told the Associated Press Democrats were delighted with her answer, because they "thought I was being snippy to Cheney." She explained that wasn't her intent.
But she also was cited in complaints PBS Ombudsman Michael Getler said he received after Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin delivered her nomination acceptance speech at the Republican National Convention in St. Paul, Minn., earlier this month.
Some viewers complained of a "dismissive" look by Ifill during her report on Palin's speech. According to Getler, some also said she wore a look of "disgust" while reporting on the Republican candidate.
It seems to me that this indicates their level of concern going into this debate, although it does seem that the expectations for Palin could not possibly be any lower than they are right now.
Greta van Susteren over at Fox News has been blogging about this as well, and her most recent post is now linked on the front page of Drudge:
I confirmed for us here on GretaWire: the McCain campaign did NOT know about Gwen Ifill’s book (I think I told them when I made my efforts - emails about midnight - to find out!) I am stunned….the campaign (actually both) should have been told before the campaign agreed to have her moderate. It simply is not fair - in law, this would create a mistrial.
I'm inclined to defend Ifill here, I really do think she is an objective journalist--to the point of being quite boring. But I am not certain that we want to get into the game of defending her right to remain as moderator either.
The best thing for the McCain campaign is this: It's probably impossible to even replace her at this point, which is exactly what they want.