Don't Do This, Gwen

In the wake of the controversy over Gwen Ifill acting as moderator for tonight's debate between Joe Biden and Sarah Palin, Ms Ifill has now, while acknowleging that she had not informed the Commission on Presidential Debates about her forthcoming book, is now implying racism.

"Do you think they made the same assumptions about Lou Cannon (who is white) when he wrote his book about Reagan?" said Ifill, who is black. Asked if there were racial motives at play, she said, "I don't know what it is. I find it curious."

I find it curious that Ifill brought up the name of writer, Lou Cannon, who never moderated a debate involving Reagan/Bush 41. Had he been asked to do so, there would have been justifiable complaints from the Democrats.

I am sorry to see Ifill go down this path. In my limited glimpses of her on TV, she always seemed professional. Yet, she cannot see the conflict of interest involved with her moderating this debate. That others see it, according to Ms Ifill's implication, means that there is racism involved.

I beg to differ. Ifill's book, due to be released shortly, is entitled: Breakthrough-Politics and race in the age of Obama. First of all, the sub-title seems a little presumptuous to me. "...the age of Obama"? He has only been on the national scene for four years-or perhaps Ms Ifill is already convinced that President Obama is a done deal. What happens to "the age of Obama" if he loses? What happens to her book sales if Obama loses? In that case, does Gwen Ifill have an financial interest (if not personal desire) in seeing Obama and Biden win in November? If so, then that is a clear conflict of interest.

Ms Ifill may not think she has a conflict of interest, but perception is just as important as reality-at least in this case. Americans need to be assured that their elections are fair. This situation hardly gives me comfort.

And for Ms Ifill to go down that path of playing the race card makes this even worse in an election that has scratched our racial wounds open again-and that was just in the Democratic Primary. In bringing this up again, she is doing a disservice to her fellow citizens as they try to come to an informed voting decision.

She also does a disservice to Barack Obama. He doesn't need another race issue to enter into this election.

With only a couple of hours to go before the debate begins, Ms Ifill is not going to step down or be replaced. It would, however, have been the classy thing to do.

It's bad enough when the candidates/debaters put their foot in their mouths. Lately, we see a lot of moderators doing the same thing.