As I noted below, whether Ifill betrays a bias in favor of Obama/Biden tonight is somewhat beside the point. I’ll bet that it will be hard to detect any bias in the questions she asks or the manner in which she asks them. And that’s precisely why her evident conflict of interest is so insidious. It’s more often the questions that aren’t asked that betray bias and unfairness.
Consider: I’d wager that if a poll had been conducted one year ago asking likely voters whether a candidate who had a working relationship with an unrepentant former terrorist had even the slightest chance of being elected president, at least 80% would answer “No.” Yet here we are five weeks before the election and Obama leads in most polls. That isn’t because of Obama’s extraordinary accomplishments, his impressive experience or invincibly superior policies. It’s because the media (with one exception) haven’t asked Obama about his relationship with Ayers (among other things).
Think about that: Obama began campaigning only a few years after 9/11 and while America is in the midst of a global war on terrorism and yet in nearly two years of campaigning he’s been asked only once about his relationship with an unrepentant terrorist. Where would the poll numbers be if Obama were asked about his relationship with Ayers as frequently as Sarah Palin is asked about her relationship with God?
Republicans must fight (not whine about) media bias at every turn. Marshall the facts. Bypass the media gatekeepers. Don’t play their game, don’t turn the other cheek. Go directly to the people. Be relentless. Be cheerfully ruthless in defense of truth and accuracy.
And if debate moderators fail to bring up Ayers or Wright or Rezko or Raines or Born-Alive or Fannie Mae or the Surge, Republicans must bring them up. Don’t concede that they’re somehow off-limits just because the media have been doing everything in their power to ignore them. Let the media dictate the rules of engagement and you lose.