November 22, 2008 12:16:08 PM CST
(Newser) – When the two presidential campaigns agreed that Gwen Ifill would moderate tonight's VP debate, it was already known that she was writing a book on contemporary black politics. But yesterday the right wing blogosphere erupted with claims that Ifill is biased toward the Democrats and should pull out. As the New York Times reports, however, strategists on both sides think that bashing the moderator is a tactic to encourage Ifill to go easy on Sarah Palin, or to mitigate a possible bad performance.
Greta Van Susteren wrote on the Fox News website that she was "stunned," while John McCain said the moderator would be fair but added, "Does this help that if she has written a book that’s favorable to Senator Obama? Probably not." Ifill counters that she hasn't yet written the chapter on the Illinois senator—and says she's tuning out the chatter. "I have to let people judge me by my work," she said.
Source New York Times
Nov 19, 08 1:55 PM CST Missouri, the last state up for grabs, looks to have gone Republican by less than a 1% margin, leaving John McCain with 173 electoral votes to Barack Obama’s 365, the Kansas City Star reports. There are still 3,000 uncounted provisional ballots, but McCain’s margin is large enough to declare him the winner of the state’s 11 electoral votes. More »
Nov 17, 08 4:45 PM CST Sarah Palin made such a splash in American politics this year that she deserves consideration for Time magazine Person of the Year, Kathryn Jean Lopez writes for the National Review. “They’ve probably long picked The One,” Lopez writes, referring to Barack Obama. But “like Obama, all you had to do was look at her to see that she offered something different on a national ticket.” More »
Nov 17, 08 2:41 PM CST Barack Obama and John McCain met today in Chicago, and reaffirmed their call for bipartisanship and cooperation, the Tribune reports. The 90-minute meeting, at Obama’s transition headquarters, was described by the president-elect as a “conversation about how we can do some work together to fix up the country.” McCain, asked if he would help see that goal through, was clear. “Obviously.” More »
Nov 14, 08 5:08 PM CST Barack Obama has won a single Nebraska electoral vote in post-election counting, the first time the state has split the vote since a 1991 law allowed the practice, the AP reports. No Democrat has gotten a vote in the state since Lyndon Johnson in 1964. More »
Nov 14, 08 3:18 PM CST Barack Obama’s campaign is redistributing the wealth to the staff, the New York Daily News reports. The loaded campaign will give its troops a bonus equivalent to a month’s pay and allow employees to keep campaign-issued phones and computers, provided they pay the taxes. “It's a very nice gesture for people who slaved away and sacrificed for the past year,” one said. More »
Barack Obama • Election 2008 • John McCain • Sarah Palin • Joe Biden • media bias • Gwen Ifill
