Opinion: McCain and Company Take Shots At Gwen Ifill

John McCain is voicing confidence in moderator Gwen Ifill's professionalism while at the same time expressing doubts about her ability to be fair after, reportedly, just learning that she is working on a book about a new generation of Black leaders called, Breakthrough: Politics and Race in the Age of Obama. The book has not been a secret that was kept from the McCain Campaign as some conservative pundits such as Michelle Malkin, Greta Van Susteran and Rush Limbaugh have alleged. Gwen Ifill's book was reported by the Associated Press on July 23rd. The two campaigns formally agreed after the debate, after their negotiators agreed on the moderators, Gwen Ifill included, on August 7th. Time Magazine printed an article by Ifill about the book on August 21st. Governor Palin was not selected to be Senator McCain‘s running mate until August 29th. Palin, who reportedly reads a vast variety of sources to get her news may have even read that August 21st article. Greta Van Susteren on her FOX web page stated:

“I confirm for us here on Greta Wire,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.”

I contend that if the McCain camp did not learn of the book until as Fox's Greta Van Susteren told them, then they are running as inept a campaign as Hillary Clinton did and they are incompetent. The McCain campaign could have found out about it at any time over the last two months and ten days by simply Goggling Ifill's name. I see this as a desperate attempt to pre-blame a poor Palin performance tonight night on something, anything, even planting the seeds of unfairness into the debate conversation. Curious, there was no mention of concern from the McCain camp or the suddenly concerned right leaning political commentators until Sarah Palin's poor reviews following her recent interviews with Katie Couric. The pre-spin began on Tuesday’s Fox & Friends program when McCain Sr. Policy Adviser Nancy Pfotenhauer fired a subtle shot across the bow at Ifill, warning that there will be serious questions to answer for if there are too many foreign policy questions in the debate: DOOCY: It sounds like they’re stacking the deck against her, because they know…everybody knows that’s Joe Biden’s…you know, that’s his forte. Why wouldn’t they ask half and half or…the average person is more concerned with domestic stuff than foreign stuff anyway.

PFOTENHAUER: Exactly, so I think that whoever…you know, I think the moderator will have some…some serious questions to answer themselves if they do do go so heavily foreign policy. John McCain chimed in while speaking to Fox News' Carl Cameron on Wednesday morning:

"I think Gwen Ifill is a professional and I think she will do a completely objective job because she is a highly respected professional. Does this help that she has written a book that is favorable to Senator Obama? Probably not."

The host of PBS' Washington Week and senior correspondent on The News Hour said she did not tell the Commission on Presidential Debates about the book. The commission had no immediate comment when contacted by The Associated Press. But the questioning of Ifill's partiality brings up this tidbit. The October 7 presidential debate will be moderated by NBC’s Tom Brokaw, who currently serves as NBC’s liaison to the McCain campaign — while allowing the spread of pro-McCain misinformation on Meet the Press. In fact, the McCain campaign hand-picked Tom Brokaw to moderate the October 7 debate. Could it be said that the McCain campaign can have it billed as Ifill Vs Brokaw? Furthermore, I notice that Bob Schieffer, the moderator of the October 15th debate is currently making the rounds on a book tour. Are there any alarm bells going off about these examples? For the record, Ifill said Wednesday that she hasn't even written her chapter on Obama for the book. She defended herself against the conflict of interest allegations

"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."

That is what I fully intend to do. Be sure to follow the debate coverage on DigitalJournal.com live tonight at 9 PM EDT. For more information, click here.