Katrina Vanden Heuvel: A GOTCHA DEBATE...

[babylonsister]

http://www.thenation.com/blogs/campaignmatters?pid=311578

A GOTCHA DEBATE...

We're into the 21st debate. We've been through fifteen months of this primary calendar or, as ABC's Charles Gibson put it in introducing what may well be the last....we're into "round 15."

These boys love their sports metaphors.

But tonight it's not those sports metaphors that have me throwing my Subway sandwich at the TV. It's the relentless stream of "gotcha" questions that ABC's top news commentators pose that have me angry, frustrated and, yes, bitter. Whether it's George Stephanopolous pushing Obama and Clinton to make a "No New Taxes" pledge....(George--please reconnect with your inner self: the intelligent, humane guy who did good battle with Alan Greenspan and Bob Rubin in trying to stop them from putting profits before people)...Or Gibson making the leap of equating electability with Obama's decision not to wear a flag pin? (Patriotism, as Obama explained, slowly, carefully, means ensuring that we take care of veterans who've served their country and done real patriotic duty.) These kinds of questions foreclose room for a full, real and honest debate about this country's future, and its politics and policies at home and abroad.

Barack Obama put it well when he spoke of how the two anchors of this evening's debate (and so much of our elitist media & punditocracy) seem interested mainly in "manufactured issues"-- Jeremiah Wright, dodging bullets in Tuzla, flag lapel pins and Bill Ayers-- a major reason so many decent and generous Americans tune out this media.

"Pain trickles up" is how Obama tonight described John McCain's economic policies. That smart riff brought pain to Charles Gibson's face. In a previous debate, Gibson, who must make a few million a year, made a class gaffe when he estimated that professors in a small New Hampshire college made close to $200,000. Laughter filled the hall that night. Americans of Main Street got a glimpse into a media that has far more friends on Wall Street.

Tonight, Gibson seemed shocked when the two candidates spoke of raising taxes on the very richest in this country. He seemed far more concerned about the Democratic candidates' proposal to raise the capital gains tax--and what he claimed would be the lost revenue-- than the fact, as the New York Times's Steven Greenhouse reports in his new must-read book, The Big Squeeze, that "since 1979, hourly earnings for 80 percent of American workers have risen by just 1, after inflation...the nation's economic pie is growing, but corporations by and large have not given their workers a bigger piece"

A one percent raise in almost thirty years? Still not bitter?

[tishaLA]

1. Katrina eats Subway?

Who knew?

[babylonsister]

2. Ha! That's what you got out of that? I do; don't you? nt

[tishaLA]

15. Sorry. I sort of take for granted that Katrina

will write something I agree with. I am trying to figure out what is going to happen with the narrative of this debate, or the narrative that emerges from this debate, and, while I share Katrina's disgust with the whole enterprise, her article doesn't help me in the way I want help right now.

[Barack_America]

23. Funny, I thought "mmm, Subway".

Gonna have to round me up a midnight snack. ;)

[scot]

25. Well, then it can't be all bad......

[MH1]

3. Stephanopoulus' "inner self" withered, shriveled, and sold out LONG ago.

Sorry Katrina.

Otherwise good read.

[Coexist]

4. knr!

[Royal Oak Rog]

5. ABC News is Fox

This has been going on for awhile now. What the f.. was Charlie Gibson being combative with every Obama answer, what a total tool. Why didn't they let that Nazi guy Stosel on 20/20 moderate, how much worse could it have been?

[splat]

6. If you can't take the heat... this is what political vetting and the GE look like

Fellow Dem Hillary has been pulling punches. McCain won't.

[babylonsister]

8. OK. I just find it sad that she hasn't talked about her accomplishments

in a long time (except part of the debate). If she's so great, why can't she do that? All she's been doing is bashing Obama. That to me is lame.

[Cha]

9. hilary hasn't been pulling any punches and you

know it.

[Royal Oak Rog]

10. Gee Hillary did everything

but call Obama a uppity niger, actully she did call him that she just coded it. Obama will still win this thing, that doesn't mean you don't call em' like you see em'. What are you a Shawn Insanity fan?

[DearAbby]

12. Yes,

people are dying in Iraq, we still torture human beings, people are struggling with this economy, 3.50 per gallon gas, food and other prices are rising, but wages aren't, tens of millions of Americans cant afford healthcare...but lets forget all that and discuss, if Rev. Wright is patriotic and love his country or not...:eyes: Great vetting for someone who isnt even fucking running.

[stillcool]

21. Nothing to worry about..

until the 21st debate. The first 20 are based on issues. The 21st is based on flag pins, and guilt by association directed towards one candidate. Why doesn't Hillary wear a flag pin? I think she's an Indian plant, intent at destroying our country from the inside by exporting jobs to India, and importing any highly skilled labor from India.

[Cha]

7. Great! Did Obama say this at the debate?..

"Barack Obama put it well when he spoke of how the two anchors of this evening's debate (and so much of our elitist media & punditocracy) seem interested mainly in "manufactured issues"-- Jeremiah Wright, dodging bullets in Tuzla, flag lapel pins and Bill Ayers-- a major reason so many decent and generous Americans tune out this media."

And this sounds good.. "Pain trickles up" is how Obama tonight described John McCain's economic policies. That smart riff brought pain to Charles Gibson's face.."

Was Obama the only one who said anything of worth about mccain?

[babylonsister]

14. I think he did: Katrina wouldn't put the responses in quotes otherwise.

And Clinton 'played' McCain tonight.

[Cha]

16. Then Obama won...

end of story.

[Metric System]

11. Obama supporter Heuvel is pissed her candidate did such a poor job. As someone else said, there are

no bad questions, only bad answers. Obama should be able to turn shit into sherbet.

[Royal Oak Rog]

13. well clinton has

turned sherbert into shit. The dem side of this election is over, I just hate seeing ABC and Hillary gang up on the next President of the United States. Think she'll campaign with Joe Liberman in the fall?

[babylonsister]

17. No, she is annoyed at the uneven playing field. For both candidates.

Did you even bother to read this really short piece? Or watch the debate? Or have anything to back your dumb comment up with?

[Metric System]

18. The moderators were crap, but still doesn't excuse Obama's piss-poor performance. Deal with it.

[babylonsister]

20. No, you're claiming a bad performance I didn't see. YOU deal with

it or dispute what I'm saying. Shitting and running is cowardly.

[thevoiceofreason]

19. In that case, you'll have a nice dessert!

[OhioChick]

22. K&R

:kick:

[PA Democrat]

24. I hope the first thing President Obama does is raise the capital gains tax for people named Charles

Gibson to 100%.