Alphabet Networks

ABC, CBS, CNN and NBC favor Obama-Biden over McCain-Palin.

Have you noticed?

MSNBC devotes 7 PM to 10 PM weeknights to Chris Matthews, Keith Olbermann and Rachel Maddow campaigning for Obama.

ABC anchor Charles Gibson's interview of Sarah Palin left his friend Fox News anchor Brit Hume defending Gibson by blaming the cameramen and the researchers for making Gibson look disdainful and sexist. The final episodes of ABC's "Boston Public" are designed to boost the Obama vote.

CBS anchor Katie Couric didn't look disdainful or sexist, but she asked Palin to name Supreme Court cases (although neither McCain nor Palin is a lawyer) and insinuated that Palin was out of touch by asking what newspapers and magazines she read. Has Couric asked any other Governor that, or is that an eastern elitist question for Republicans who are not part of the Washington establishment like "Sarah Barracuda"?

CNN remains relentlessly biased in favor of Obama and other leftist Democrats.

Biden-Palin DebatePoor Joe Biden. That man has been a United States Senator since 1973. Sarah Palin is young enough to be his daughter and she hasn't spent a second, much less 35 years, in the United States Senate or run for president once, much less twice.

It may have been inconceivable to "the Delaware gaffe machine" that the former point guard for am Alaska high school basketball team could go one-on-one with him and win.

But..."the pit bull with lipstick" did just that!

Scrutinize the transcript and it becomes apparent that Palin won even bigger than it seemed on first viewing (or hearing).

Wikipedia: "[Palin] was the head of the Fellowship of Christian Athletes chapter at the school and the point guard and captain of the school's girls' basketball team. She helped the team win the Alaska small-school basketball championship in 1982, hitting a critical free throw in the last seconds of the game, despite having an ankle stress fracture. She earned the nickname 'Sarah Barracuda' because of her intense play."

Those who hoped (and expected) Palin to melt like the wicked witch in "The Wizard of Oz" during the debate were shocked to see Palin was on her game throughout the whole debate.

Did you see Palin bring smile after smile to Biden's face during the debate? They were smiles that masked the pain of knowing she was scoring.

The one who came close to tears was Biden, who obviously felt a need to refer to the death of his first wife and their year-old daughter and the serious injuries (from which full recoveries were made) of their two sons as a result of an automobile accident more than 35 years ago.

Palin did not put her Downs syndrome baby to the debate.

The alphabet media has been reporting the debate as a Biden win or a draw, while grudgingly conceding that Palin did not make a big blunder and lamenting lowering expectations for Palin as far as they did.

When the late President Gerald Ford became confused during a 1976 presidential debate and though Poland was free (perhaps he was glimpsing the future!), the alphabet networks ridiculed him with relish.

When McCain confused Sunni and Shia, the alphabet networks hammered him.

But (surprise!) Biden has not been ridiculed for falsely reporting during the debate that Hezbollah had been driven out of Lebanon.

If Palin had said that, "Saturday Night Live" hit woman Tina Fey would have had a field day. (At least Fey does not hide her bias. During the 2008 Emmy Awards, Fey said of Palin, "I want to be done playing this lady November 5. So if anyone could help me be done playing this lady November 5, that would be good for me."

The alphabet networks are doing what they can, Tina, so voters will have to go to www.johnmcain.com for this list of what are identified on that website as "Joe Biden's 14 Lies."

1. TAX VOTE: Biden said McCain voted “the exact same way” as Obama to increase taxes on Americans earning just $42,000, but McCain DID NOT VOTE THAT WAY.

2. AHMEDINIJAD MEETING: Joe Biden lied when he said that Barack Obama never said that he would sit down unconditionally with Mahmoud Ahmedinijad of Iran. Barack Obama did say specifically, and Joe Biden attacked him for it.

3. OFFSHORE OIL DRILLING: Biden said, “Drill we must.” But Biden has opposed offshore drilling and even compared offshore drilling to “raping” the Outer Continental Shelf.”

4. TROOP FUNDING: Joe Biden lied when he indicated that John McCain and Barack Obama voted the same way against funding the troops in the field. John McCain opposed a bill that included a timeline, that the President of the United States had already said he would veto regardless of it’s passage.

5. OPPOSING CLEAN COAL: Biden says he’s always been for clean coal, but he just told a voter that he is against clean coal and any new coal plants in America and has a record of voting against clean coal and coal in the U.S. Senate.

6. ALERNATIVE ENERGY VOTES: According to FactCheck.org, Biden is exaggerating and overstating John McCain’s record voting for alternative energy when he says he voted against it 23 times.

7. HEALTH INSURANCE: Biden falsely said McCain will raise taxes on people's health insurance coverage -- they get a tax credit to offset any tax hike. Independent fact checkers have confirmed this attack is false.

8. OIL TAXES: Biden falsely said Palin supported a windfall profits tax in Alaska -- she reformed the state tax and revenue system, it's not a windfall profits tax.

9. AFGHANISTAN / GEN. MCKIERNAN COMMENTS: Biden said that top military commander in Iraq said the principles of the surge could not be applied to Afghanistan, but the commander of NATO's International Security Assistance Force Gen. David D. McKiernan said that there were principles of the surge strategy, including working with tribes, that could be applied in Afghanistan.

10. REGULATION: Biden falsely said McCain weakened regulation -- he actually called for more regulation on Fannie and Freddie.

11. IRAQ: When Joe Biden lied when he said that John McCain was “dead wrong on Iraq”, because Joe Biden shared the same vote to authorize the war and differed on the surge strategy where they John McCain has been proven right.

12. TAX INCREASES: Biden said Americans earning less than $250,000 wouldn’t see higher taxes, but the Obama-Biden tax plan would raise taxes on individuals making $200,000 or more.

13. BAILOUT: Biden said the economic rescue legislation matches the four principles that Obama laid out, but in reality it doesn’t meet two of the four principles that Obama outlined on Sept. 19, which were that it include an emergency economic stimulus package, and that it be part of “part of a globally coordinated effort with our partners in the G-20.”

14. REAGAN TAX RATES: Biden is wrong in saying that under Obama, Americans won't pay any more in taxes then they did under Reagan.

Is Biden a liar relying on the alphabet networks to keep voters from finding that out...or a sincere incompetent?

Either way, he's not fit to be vice president, much less president.

Moreover, that "lie" list is not all inclusive.

National Review Online's Jim Geraghty added ten more Biden debate "lies."

Geraghty:

THE CONSTITUTION: Biden: "Vice President Cheney's been the most dangerous vice president we've had probably in American history. He has — he has — the idea he doesn't realize that Article I of the Constitution defines the role of the vice president of the United States, that's the executive — he works in the executive branch. He should understand that. Everyone should understand that."

As noted by the McCain Camp, Article I of the Constitution does not, in fact, define the role of the Vice President of the United States. It defines the role of the legislative branch, otherwise known as the branch in which Joe Biden has served for the last 36 years.

[A reader writes in noting that Article I does mention the veep at one point — "The Vice President of the United States shall be President of the Senate, but shall have no Vote, unless they be equally divided." However, by describing the veep's role in the legislature, it doesn't really help Biden's claim that it "defines the role, that's the executive, he works in the executive branch."]

IRAQ-AFGHANISTAN SPENDING: Biden said that the U.S. spends more in Iraq in one month than it has in Afghanistan in six or seven years.

That figure is off by 2000 percent.

‘KICKED HEZBOLLAH OUT OF LEBANON’: Biden: When we kicked — along with France, we kicked Hezbollah out of Lebanon, I said, and Barack said, ‘Move NATO forces in there. Fill the vacuum, because if you don’t know — if you don’t, Hezbollah will control it.”

Reuters thinks he meant to refer to Syria, but I still don't think it would be accurate to say the U.S. kicked Syria out of Lebanon. The Lebanese kicked Syria out of Lebanon.

VIOLENCE AGAINST WOMEN ACT: Biden's statement that McCain voted against the Violence Against Women Act is accurate. But as Robert Byers notes, the Supreme Court ruled in United States v. Morrison, the Court ruled that much of Biden's law was an unconstitutional power grab by Congress of rights reserved to the states. Nobody voted against the WAWA because they support violence against women; they objected over constitutional concerns that a Supreme Court majority validated.

RESTAURANT: "Look, all you have to do is go down Union Street with me in Wilmington or go to Katie's Restaurant or walk into Home Depot with me where I spend a lot of time and you ask anybody in there whether or not the economic and foreign policy of this administration has made them better off in the last eight years."

According to this Delaware site, Katie's Restaurant is no longer in business; locals remember it on Union Street 25 to 30 years ago.

ARMS CONTROL TREATY: Biden: "Number two, with regard to arms control and weapons, nuclear weapons require a nuclear arms control regime. John McCain voted against a Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty that every Republican has supported."

I have no idea where Biden gets this "every Republican has supported" claim, as 49 other Republican senators voted 'no' with McCain.

When the roll was finally called on October 13, the resolution to ratify the CTBT (including the six safeguards that Daschle had submitted as an amendment) was defeated by a 51-48 vote with one abstention. (See the voting record.) Forty-four Democrats voted for ratification as did four Republicans: John Chafee (R-RI), James Jeffords (R-VT), Gordon Smith (R-OR) and Arlen Specter (R-PA). Fifty Republican senators and one independent (Robert Smith of New Hampshire) voted against ratification, and Senator Robert Byrd (D-WV) voted "present." The treaty fell 19 votes short of achieving the necessary two-thirds majority necessary for ratification.

WEST BANK ELECTIONS: Biden: President Bush insisted on elections in the West Bank, when I said, and others said, and Barack Obama said, 'Big mistake. Hamas will win. You'll legitimize them.'"

The Washington Post's Glenn Kessler notes that "Obama had been a senator for only a few days when the election took place, but if he made such statements, they did not appear in news reports or transcripts that are contained in the Nexis or Factiva databases."

PAKISTANI WEAPONS: "Pakistan already has nuclear weapons. Pakistan already has deployed nuclear weapons. Pakistan's weapons can already hit Israel and the Mediterranean."

The distance between Israel and Pakistan is 2,085 miles, or 3355 kilometers. They are working on developing longer-range missiles; maybe Biden knows of some development that public sources do not yet know about. Theoretically, the Pakistanis could put the weapon on a boat and then sail it to the target, but by that standard, any site on a coast in the world is within their range.

ANOTHER UPDATE: This site indicates that the top range of Pakistani missile that can carry a nuclear warhead is 1000 miles. By being off by 1,000 or so, I'm now upgrading this to full lie/error/hallucination status.

Last night I mentioned, "Biden charges that McCain would not meet with the government of Spain. He didn't say that; he said he might not have a meeting with Spanish Prime Minister Jose Luiz Rodriguez Zapatero. Considering Zapatero's past America-bashing on the Spanish campaign trail when it's politically convenient, that's an entirely reasonable position for an American president to have."

I also noted, "Nobody in the Senate has been a better friend to Israel than Joe Biden." That's a rather audacious statement coming from a man who, according to Israeli leaders, threatened a total cutoff of aid in 1982.

With these two, I'm up to 24 Biden lies/errors/hallucinations.

TWO DOZEN IS TWO SOZEN TOO MANY!

Ifill

Debate moderator Gwen Ifill is what the late Democrat Congresswoman and presidential hopeful Shirley Chrisholm described herself as: a two-fer (both black and a woman).

The Democrat Party never took up Chrsholm on her offer to be their presidential candidate, but Ifill was chosen to moderate the vice presidential candidate's debate in 2004.

Wikipedia:

"On October 5, 2004, Ifill moderated the vice-presidential debate between Republican candidate Dick Cheney and Democratic candidate Senator John Edwards. During the debate, Cheney said that he would need more than the allotted 30 seconds to react to a statement by Edwards, Ifill replied: 'Well, that's all you've got.' Ifill said that, although it was not her intent, Democratic partisans were delighted with her because she was seen as being 'snippy' to Cheney.

"Ifill also moderated the October 2, 2008 vice-presidential debate....

"Prior to the debate, there was controversy over Ifill's neutrality, related to her upcoming book. The book was reported on in the media and appeared in trade catalogs as early as July 2008, well before Ifill was selected by the debate commission, though Ifill acknowledged that she did not inform the commission about her book. Ifill responded to criticism on blogs by stating, '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. 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.' After the debate, Ifill was generally praised for her performance with the Boston Globe reporting that she 'is receiving high marks for equal treatment of the candidates.'"

Geraghty rightly expected better.

Geraghty:

"Gwen Ifill's questions were not glaringly biased, but it was ridiculous that she didn't feel the need to acknowledge her book on 'The Age of Obama' at the beginning of the debate. It was the third time in this process that she has behaved dishonorably. The first was not disclosing the book to the Commission on Presidential Debates. The second was dismissing the criticism out of hand, and not acknowledging that debate moderators ought to not have a financial incentive to see one side win. And thirdly by refusing to acknowledge these facts during the debate, information that the viewers at home are entitled to take into consideration.

"All of this is entirely separate from how pro-Obama the book is, and the questions she asked.

"We had questions on the bailout bill, the subprime lending meltdown, taxes, promises the candidates will not be able to keep because of the cost of the bailout, the bankruptcy bill, climate change, capping carbon emissions, same sex benefits and gay marriage, an exit strategy for Iraq, whether a nuclear Iran or an unstable Pakistan is a greater threat (although according to the transcript, Ifill said 'an unstable Afghanistan' at one point), Secretaries of States' comments on engaging our enemies, what has the administration done right or wrong on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, what should be the trigger for using nuclear weapons, putting troops on the ground in Darfur (maybe her best question), how the potential vice presidents would differ from their running mates, past comments expressing disinterest in being vice president, and when have you been forced to change a long-held view in order to accommodate changed circumstances.

"It's interesting that energy, Palin's signature issue, never came up in the form of a question; she mentioned it in relation to questions about climate change and carbon emissions. As Ace noted, it's interesting that abortion never came up, nor guns. Nothing on earmarks, government waste, or much on the budget."

Bottom line: Ifill's book is scheduled to be released on Inauguration Day 2009. If Obama wins, Ifill's books sales are expected to benefit by hundreds of thousands of dollars. Ifill's admitted failure to tell the Commission about her book may well have resulted from a belief that it would not have mattered to the Commission and that may well be true, but the appearance of impropriety is obvious to anyone who thinks of hundreds of thousands of dollars as non-trivial. By proceeding, Ifill put herself in a lose-lose position: if she mentioned her upcoming book on "The Age of Obama," she'd have been criticized for promoting her book, and by not mentioning it, she concealed her financial interest in the success of her book from viewers who tuned in without knowing about her upcoming book and expect impartial moderators. An honorable judge recuses herself or himself from a case where there is even an appearance of impropriety. Ifill should have been unselfish, recused herself as moderator and asked Ann Coulter to fill in for her! (A blonde should have been chosen to moderate a presidential or vice presidential debate by now.)