VP Debate Moderator Must Recuse Herself

"Barack Obama is sitting in the back of his rented luxury campaign bus with its granite counter tops and two flat-screen TVs. The Illinois senator's arms are wrapped around his wife, Michelle, who he doesn't get to see much these days. And at this moment, he is, of all things, singing." - The Obama's: Portrait of an American Family by Gwen Ifill

Are these the words of a hard-hitting journalist? Or a fawning admirer. Meet Gwen Ifill, black PBS news anchor and moderator for the one and only Vice Presidential debate on Thursday night. She is also the author of a brand new book set to be released on, surprise surprise, Inauguration Day 2009, called Breakthrough: Politics and Race in the Age of Obama. One wonders will her book sell so well if he doesn't win? Could she have a vested interest?

For those who may not recall, Ifill also moderated the debate between Dick Cheney and John Edwards in which she proved to be rather snippy to the Vice President, including one occasion at which Cheney tried to joke he wouldn't be able to answer a particular accusation regarding Halliburton in 30 seconds, "Well, that's all the time you've got." (snap, snap, snap)

Ifill gave commentary following both Michelle Obama's speech at the DNC convention and Palin's speech at to the RNC, with a marked difference. In glowing language, Ifill praised Michelle Obama as a creature that people "have never seen anything like before...educated, beautiful, tall...she tells you what she thinks and they hope she can tell a story about Barack Obama as well as herself." After Palin's speech Ifill was dismissive, contemptuous, agitated, disgusted, and had to struggle to say anything good about the candidate.

The color of Gwen Ifill's politics is clear. And that said, she must recuse herself as the moderator of Thursday's debate, concerning which the Commission on Presidential Debates has actually decided not to impose any restrictions on her duties or questions.

This does not bode well for Sarah Palin. She has a tremendous task to perform and has only one shot to do it. Unfortunately for her, she has not weathered well the "pop-quiz" interviews with Gibson and Couric. In politics, perception is reality and in foolishly not insisting that those interviews with liberal reporters be aired unedited, the McCain campaign has a perception problem when it comes to Palin.

Palin not only has to redeem her image from those interviews, she has to clean up the mess that John McCain left from Friday nights unclear performance on the economy. And she has to appear more statesmanlike than the late night jerks like David Letterman and SNL have painted her to be. That's the reality for Palin. No point in complaining about it. She must simply embrace it and make it work for her. The question is, can she do it? She must dispel the doubts that are arising about her abilities.

There is a certain amount of age-ism in play here because McCain has been portrayed by the media as having a real potential for not making it through his term due to health reasons. So unlike Biden, Palin is seen as someone running for two offices. President and Vice President.

At the very least, it is fair to insist that the moderator actually be moderate. How can a candidate expect to receive fair treatment when she has two opponents?

Of course, if she wins against Biden, she will handily put to rest any ideas about her worthiness. But if she doesn't, it's trouble for the McCain campaign. She must win. Period.

Good luck, Sarah. You're going to need it.