Gwen Ifill Plays the Race Card

Gwen Ifill, moderator of tomorrow night's vice presidential debate, has decided to ratchet up the discussion of her impartiality.

Ifill has a conflict of interest. She has written a book, scheduled to be released on Inauguration Day, January 20, 2009. Her book is titled, The Breakthrough: Politics and Race in the Age of Obama.

Clearly, there's a problem with that.

She has an interest in wanting to see Joe Biden excel at the debate. She has an interest in wanting Sarah Palin to go down in flames.

Ifill's Age of Obama is doomed if John McCain and Sarah Palin take office on January 20, 2009, and not Barack Obama and Joe Biden.

She's dismisses the "blog chatter" today, questioning her impartiality.

Still, she's annoyed. How dare anyone question her integrity!

NEW YORK -- PBS journalist Gwen Ifill, moderator of the upcoming vice presidential debate, dismissed conservative questions about her impartiality because she is writing a book that includes material on Barack Obama.

Ifill said Wednesday that she hasn't even written her chapter on Obama for the book "The Breakthrough: Politics and Race in the Age of Obama," which is to be published by Doubleday on Jan. 20, 2009, the day a new president is inaugurated.

"I've got a pretty long track record covering politics and news, so I'm not particularly worried that one-day blog chatter is going to destroy my reputation," Ifill said. "The proof is in the pudding. They can watch the debate tomorrow night and make their own decisions about whether or not I've done my job."

I know Ifill's a lib. I know she's very anti-Sarah Palin.

She's made no secret of that.

But for me, news of her Obama book was the last straw. That's a conflict of interest.

Greta Van Susteren explains:

I confirmed for us here on GretaWire: the McCain campaign did NOT know about Gwen Ifill’s book (I think I told them when I made my efforts - emails about midnight - to find out!) I am stunned….the campaign (actually both) should have been told before the campaign agreed to have her moderate. It simply is not fair - in law, this would create a mistrial.

So what does Ifill do?

She takes the discussion of her impartiality up a notch. She plays the race card.

...Ifill questions why people assume that her book will be favorable toward Obama.

"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."

To hint that people are troubled about her impartiality because she's black is taking the very low road.

The tactics being employed by Ifill further solidify my belief that she should not moderate the vice presidential debate.

It's not because she's black. It's because she is unabashed in her support for Obama.

It's not race. It's the book.