The ABC/Disney/ESPN monopoly wastes 45 minutes grilling Obama on 30-second Jeremiah Wright clip and “bitter” comment. Clinton says American people should “look over” the Bosnia exaggeration. ABC’s Clinton-supporting moderators concurred.
ABC has cemented itself as Diet Fox News. Who the hell does that pompous Charlie Gibson character think he is? Reminds me of this dusty, dirty old man I had to work with here on a Phoenix radio station. It’s just more proof that anybody, whether educated at the Ajax School of Basket-Weaving or Stanford, can be a head-o-phile on these Euro-American media conglomerates if they fit the description.
The Gibson character continually interrupted Senator Obama as he attempted to answer at least four questions about the 30-second Youtube Jeremiah Wright clip and at least two more about the “bitter” comment made a while back. Meanwhile, neither Gibby or George Stephanopoulous offered a follow-up questions to the Bosnia exaggeration by Senator Clinton, and neither even mentioned Clinton’s now former Chief Campaign Strategist Mark Penn and his shady dealings with Columbia on trade (in a state, Pennsylvania, which has suffered immensely from NAFTA) or Senator Clinton’s exagerration about Trina Bachtel (who subsequently died, along with her still born baby) being denied care at an Ohio hospital because she couldn’t pay a $100 fee. Stephanopoulous, a former advisor for President Bill Clinton, contributed to the Wright-obsession of Euro-American media as well, but showed about as much objectivity I believed he could, likely dissenting from ABC/Disney/ESPN’s orders to roast Obama.
The actual issues were secondary to ABC and the two Clinton supporters who moderated the debate, which made it completely worthless. We learned nothing new (except this Gibby character is a wannabe Hillbilly O’Reilly) and this media conglomerate did nothing to help the American people understand the candidates’ positions on the issues. Instead they attacked Obama relentlessly, even questioning why he doesn’t wear American flag pins? Is that a requirement by Presidential candidates? Gibby obviously has it in for Senator Obama and used his position on ABC to fulfill a personal vendetta. It was embarrassing to watch and just plain unprofessional and juvenile by the Clinton-supporting Gibby.
You can’t fault Senator Clinton for taking additional shots at Obama, as she was only joining in with the rest of the mob. Obama even took the high-road when asked a follow-up question about Clinton’s Bosnia remarks by saying all politicians make mistakes and we should not dwell on those sorts of things. Clinton, however, added fuel to the fires Gibby and Stephanopoulous started, as I guess she should, as its been her strategy throughout the campaign. Why change now? As Senator Obama has said, this is politics for you.
I wish I had more to say about the actual issues and how the candidates responded, but there was no coverage of them. And when there actually was a question about an issue, only Senator Clinton was able to get in complete thoughts without being interrupted continuously. We would have been better off with CBS and Katie Couric as moderator of probably one of the final debates we will see before the nomination.
Senator Clinton was right in that the Republicans (who all support a 100-year war) should just concede defeat and allow the Democrats to take over, but her continual attacking and negativity aren’t helping the party as a whole. She’ll still get my vote if she’s the candidate, as that Bush-league Iraq fiasco must end, but she just flat-out isn’t very likeable. Senator McCain and his 100-year war, all-Muslims-are-the-same positions actually look fairly decent next to her icy politics. But if that’s what she thinks it takes to win, more power to her, as long as Insane McCain isn’t elected.