So who came out of the 21st Democratic Presidential debate looking worst? Hillary Clinton? Barack Obama? How about George Stephanopoulos?
How Steph, as a former Clinton White House staffer, passed the ‘conflict of interest’ question that should be asked of any moderator is important enough. But he then went on to question Obama about his links to former Weather Underground member (now professor at the University of Illinois at Chicago) William Ayers: A question, as MSNBC’s Keith Olbermann has pointed out, that was spoon-fed to Steph by Fox News’ Shawn Hannity and New York-based Fox-wannabe Steve Malzberg.
More than a few people, including anyone that had endured his ABC show, had written him off as an affable bumbler (either his “virgin in a bordello”-style autobiography All Too Human was self-serving or he was the most naive person to ever step into the Oval Office). But his substance-free approach Wednesday (Obama doesn’t wear a flag lapel pin! Erm, Steph, neither did Washington, Lincoln, FDR, or Teddy Roosevelt) seemed especially weak at this stage in the race.
FYI, as Obama pointed out, his involvement with Ayers was that they sat on the non-partisan philanthropic Woods Fund of Chicago: Bill Clinton pardoned Susan Rosenberg and Linda Evans, two of Ayers’ fellow Weather Underground members, who served 16 years for transporting explosives.
This article appears in April 11 • 2008.
