# Gwen Ifill to release book featuring Obama in January. WTF? **URL:** \ **Category:** The BBQ Pit\ **Created:** [October 1, 2008, 4:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/gwen-ifill-to-release-book-featuring-obama-in-january-wtf/465966 "2008-10-01T04:11:42Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 13
**Author:** ![Cervaise](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cervaise/32/16693_2.png) [@Cervaise](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cervaise)\ **Post date:** [October 2, 2008, 7:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/gwen-ifill-to-release-book-featuring-obama-in-january-wtf/465966/241 "2008-10-02T19:13:52Z")
> [@magellan01](#): > > And supply these “facts”. And the comedy just keeps on coming. ---
**Author:** ![elucidator](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/8edcca/32.png) [@elucidator](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/elucidator)\ **Post date:** [October 2, 2008, 7:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/gwen-ifill-to-release-book-featuring-obama-in-january-wtf/465966/242 "2008-10-02T19:26:03Z")
So, McCain wins and Gwen’s book comes out on Inaugaration Day. The employees of Borders Books put the book out, take a coffee break, then move those books to the Bargain Table, the limbo of the remaindered and forgotten. Obama wins, they move Gwen’s book to make room for Oprah’s The Obama I Know and Love and Glenn Beck’s Hussein Obama and the Whore of Babylon: The Truth! _Feh_, as they say in Lubbock. ---
**Author:** ![wring](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/838e76/32.png) [@wring](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/wring)\ **Post date:** [October 2, 2008, 8:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/gwen-ifill-to-release-book-featuring-obama-in-january-wtf/465966/243 "2008-10-02T20:01:45Z")
> [@Hunter\_Hawk](#): > > Wait…so you mean to tell me that Palin _doesn’t_ read all of the papers? The deuce you say! She reads **all** of the papers, she just doesn’t read _all_ of each she only reads the important stuff like hunting and comic sections. ---
**Author:** ![CairoCarol](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cairocarol/32/3825_2.png) [@CairoCarol](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CairoCarol)\ **Post date:** [October 2, 2008, 9:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/gwen-ifill-to-release-book-featuring-obama-in-january-wtf/465966/244 "2008-10-02T21:16:05Z")
> [@](#): > > originally posted by **magellan** : > perhaps you can answer these questions and we can see where a common-sense common ground is missing: > > 1. Do you deny that a win will make Obama more of a celebrity than if he loses—the the President is more of a celebrity than the loser? 2) Do you deny that celebrity sells books? 3) Do you deny that Ifill’s decision to use Obama’s name in the title is an acknowledgement of that fact? 1. No, I do not deny that POTUS is always going to be one of the best-known people in the world. 2. Celebrity sells certain types of books, but not others - putting a blurb by Britney Spears on a Richard Dawkins book would not help to sell it. 3. Not having read the book, I really can’t say. We can speculate that her publisher pushed her to have an accessible, eye-catching title. There, your three questions are answered. Please take the time to consider a few of my observations, then do me the courtesy of answering three of mine. First, you have made the assumption that Ifill wrote the book for money. Um, Danielle Steel writes books for money. Tom Clancy writes books for money. People who write books that have “Politics and Race” in the title frequently have other motivations, like a genuine love of their subject matter and a desire to inform/share ideas. Second, you have mixed up the concepts of “bias” and “opinion.” Allow me to explain. Let’s say I am a rabid lefty, and I teach a high school course. Two of my students are the children of prominent right-wing Republicans. If I give those students lower grades because I don’t like their parents, I am biased. If I grade everyone even-handedly, do not impose my views in the classroom, and express myself only outside of the classroom, I still have an opinion, but I’m not biased. Third, you have never addressed the interesting point by **DoctorJ** that each candidate’s tax proposals will have implications for the debate moderator. In fact, all moderators will be affected by the tax proposals of the candidates. So here are my questions: 1. What evidence do you have that (a) Ifill’s motivation for writing the book was primarily to make money, rather than to inform people who are interested in the issues; and (b) the topic of the book, which appears to be on how race affects politics, will become less relevant to people interested in the subject if Obama loses? 2. Based on the distinction made above between “bias” and “opinion,” do you think Ifill is biased? If the answer is “no, but we know she has a book out about Obama, so the appearance of bias is there,” explain how this is logically different froam saying “no, but we know that moderator X is planning to vote in November, so the appearance of bias is there.” 3. Do you think that the tax proposals of Obama and McCain will have identical impacts on the pocketbooks of Americans? If no, should the debate be moderated by a Canadian, so that the outcome of the election will have no influence on the moderator’s finances? ---
**Author:** ![magellan01](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/45deac/32.png) [@magellan01](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/magellan01)\ **Post date:** [October 2, 2008, 9:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/gwen-ifill-to-release-book-featuring-obama-in-january-wtf/465966/245 "2008-10-02T21:19:39Z")
> [@Cervaise](#): > > And the comedy just keeps on coming. Aww, little Snipey is back. Perhaps you’d care to take on the task yourself. At the same time you can see what it feels like is like to contribute to a discussion. Maybe you’d like it. I won’t hold my breath, though. Your spots aren’t changing at this point. ---
**Author:** ![Acsenray](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/acsenray/32/4519_2.png) [@Acsenray](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Acsenray)\ **Post date:** [October 2, 2008, 9:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/gwen-ifill-to-release-book-featuring-obama-in-january-wtf/465966/246 "2008-10-02T21:21:57Z")
> [@Oy](#): > > They’ll just scream “bias” and the base will believe it, and a few independents will think “no smoke without fire.” > > One of the reasons Republicans win so often is their willingness to do this kind of thing. Democrats usually just can’t do it, because they just don’t believe people are stupid enough to fall for it. It’s not that their principles are any higher, just that they can’t believe they’d get away with it. Yeah, Glenn Greenwald at Salon has it nailed: > [@](#): > > They have run the country for the entire decade. … The country’s largest and richest corporations – including the ones owning the most powerful media outlets – pour money into their party and perceive, correctly, that their interests are served by the Right’s agenda. But still – they can’t get a fair shake; everything is deeply oppressive to them; it’s all so unfair. > > As they’ve ruled the country, it’s been driven into the ground on every level. … They’ve ushered in disastrous wars, virtual economic panic, state-sanctioned torture and astonishing debt. Their leaders have been exposed as bloated, corrupted criminals and hypocrites. Their current candidate chose as his Vice President someone who can barely string together a complete sentence or opine on the simplest of matters, and who himself acknowledges that he’s been joined at the hip with the failed Bush Presidency on virtually all key issues. > > But still – they’re about to lose not because of anything they did, but because the corporate-owned Media hates them and is distorting their message; because they’re being persecuted for their religion (which more than 75% of Americans share); because they are just weak, kind, good little Davids being hopelessly crushed by the Goliath forces arrayed in a confederacy against them. **That they belong to virtually every majority group and wield most power makes no impact on any of that. This kind of self-centered, self-victimizing, self-pitying worldview provides great psychological comfort and a release from any responsibility for one’s actions, and so they are highly motivated never to give it up.** ---
**Author:** ![Cervaise](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cervaise/32/16693_2.png) [@Cervaise](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cervaise)\ **Post date:** [October 2, 2008, 9:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/gwen-ifill-to-release-book-featuring-obama-in-january-wtf/465966/247 "2008-10-02T21:54:45Z")
> [@magellan01](#): > > I won’t hold my breath, though. Dude, I don’t care what you do, or think, or anything, really, on this or any other subject. I could not possibly give less of a shit. You could crazy-glue a cork into my asshole, and I still wouldn’t be able to give less of a shit. If you forced me to fast for a month and then scrubbed out my colon with a bottle brush and a gallon of OxiClean, I still could not give less of a shit than I do. If you stitched shut my butthole and installed a colostomy bag with the output routed into a supermassive black hole, the barest fraction of a molecule of a shit I would be capable of giving in that situation would be a veritable mountain of feces compared to the shit I do not give about you or what you think. But as a tee-off point for golfing punchlines into orbit, your posts are solid gold. So you’ll just have to forgive me if I keep whacking your balls. ---
**Author:** ![The\_Second\_Stone](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/bbe5ce/32.png) [@The\_Second\_Stone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Second_Stone)\ **Post date:** [October 2, 2008, 11:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/gwen-ifill-to-release-book-featuring-obama-in-january-wtf/465966/248 "2008-10-02T23:36:31Z")
> [@Diogenes\_the\_Cynic](#): > > After doing some googling, I’ve discovered that Greta Van Susteren’s breathless announcement that the McCain campaign didn’t know about Ifill’s book is a lie. The book was publicly announced and known about at least as early as [July 22.](http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/entertainment/2008064108_apapontvtavissmiley.html) The McCain campaign agreed to Ifill as the VP debate moderator on [August 21](http://www.broadcastingcable.com/article/CA6589365.html). Some might try to protest that the McCain camp didn’t know about it, but that’s their own fault, isn’t it? The notion that Ifill was keeping this a secret from anybody is hereby completely fucking debunked. > > I remain your humble correspondent, Diogenes. Republicans like pretending to be the victims, so they intentionally picked a woman whom they know was writing an Obama book. But on a serious note, they just weren’t paying attention to anything. They’d know Ifill for years as serious and fair and didn’t vet her any more than they vetted Palin. It’s amateur hour. ---
**Author:** ![Count\_Blucher](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/c5a1d2/32.png) [@Count\_Blucher](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Count_Blucher)\ **Post date:** [October 3, 2008, 12:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/gwen-ifill-to-release-book-featuring-obama-in-january-wtf/465966/249 "2008-10-03T00:50:49Z")
> [@The\_Second\_Stone](#): > > Republicans like pretending to be the victims, so they intentionally picked a woman whom they know was writing an Obama book. > > But on a serious note, they just weren’t paying attention to anything. They’d know Ifill for years as serious and fair and didn’t vet her any more than they vetted Palin. It’s amateur hour. Its ‘plausible deniability’. If she manages to do well (pennies land on their side too, ya know) she’ll have overcome great obstacles in Liberal Oppression. If she runs head-first into Biden like Fossett into a mountainside, well, we all know how ‘prejudiced’ that unfair moderator was. [LethalWeapon2]“But…but…she’s Bleech…!”[/LethalWeapon2] Its like arguing with an umpire to the point of ejection in baseball: Its done so the following ‘calls’ will all go your way. And all of **Magellan** ’s Drama-dy is happening right before the debate. But of course this is all sheer coincidence. Pay no attention to that man behind the curtain… _pops pocorn for Palin’s train-wreck debate_ ---
**Author:** ![Hamlet](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hamlet/32/2818_2.png) [@Hamlet](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hamlet)\ **Post date:** [October 3, 2008, 1:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/gwen-ifill-to-release-book-featuring-obama-in-january-wtf/465966/250 "2008-10-03T01:37:20Z")
I think the one thing so far from the debate is that IT MATTERS NOT ONE BIT what the moderator asks, does, or prompts, Palin is not going to answer a question. Hell, the moderators could be Michelle Obama, Hillary Clinton, and Biden himself asking questions and it would be no different. ---
**Author:** ![magellan01](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/45deac/32.png) [@magellan01](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/magellan01)\ **Post date:** [October 3, 2008, 3:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/gwen-ifill-to-release-book-featuring-obama-in-january-wtf/465966/251 "2008-10-03T03:22:04Z")
> [@Cervaise](#): > > Dude, I don’t care what you do, or think, or anything, really, on this or any other subject. I could not possibly give less of a shit. You could crazy-glue a cork into my asshole, and I still wouldn’t be able to give less of a shit. If you forced me to fast for a month and then scrubbed out my colon with a bottle brush and a gallon of OxiClean, I still could not give less of a shit than I do. If you stitched shut my butthole and installed a colostomy bag with the output routed into a supermassive black hole, the barest fraction of a molecule of a shit I would be capable of giving in that situation would be a veritable mountain of feces compared to the shit I do not give about you or what you think. First the urination, now this? Whew. And ew. I find such a fixation with the body’s expelling functions more than a little troubling. But whatever floats your boat. At the very least it makes sense that my impression of you is simply that you’re an asshole. And a shithead. 😉 Now, I’ll leave you to go back to your…your…well, not being into what your into, I’ll just leave you to your rather odd infatuation. ---
**Author:** ![Zoe](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/a4c791/32.png) [@Zoe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zoe)\ **Post date:** [October 3, 2008, 3:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/gwen-ifill-to-release-book-featuring-obama-in-january-wtf/465966/252 "2008-10-03T03:42:26Z")
**magellan01** , did you find any bias in Gwen Ifill’s moderation tonight? I have wondered why she allowed one debater to substitute other questions for those that the moderator asked. Perhaps if she hadn’t had the book in progress or if so much noise hadn’t been made so late in the game about alleged bias, the moderator would have kept the participants on task. That was very poor moderation indeed. ---
**Author:** ![magellan01](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/45deac/32.png) [@magellan01](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/magellan01)\ **Post date:** [October 3, 2008, 5:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/gwen-ifill-to-release-book-featuring-obama-in-january-wtf/465966/253 "2008-10-03T05:22:54Z")
> [@Zoe](#): > > **magellan01** , did you find any bias in Gwen Ifill’s moderation tonight? > > I have wondered why she allowed one debater to substitute other questions for those that the moderator asked. Perhaps if she hadn’t had the book in progress or if so much noise hadn’t been made so late in the game about alleged bias, the moderator would have kept the participants on task. That was very poor moderation indeed. I thought it was basically good, though a little light. Definitely fair. I like it when they make the politicians answer what was asked. But they were both guilty of that—as are all politicians. I think the main skill they share is the ability to deflect-and-segue. As I tried to post in GD (but it was closed when I hit “submit”), both candidates did really well. Biden did what he had to do, perfectly, and reminded me of why I liked him all these years. Palin saved the ticket and herself from being replaced on the ticket. She was the SP from the convention, not the one from the Couric interview. I’m sure most people here probably think she didn’t do so well. But even if you don’t think she “won”, as I do, I think you have to say she did really well. After all, she stood up there with a guy who’s lived and breathed this stuff for 35 years. ---
**Author:** ![elucidator](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/8edcca/32.png) [@elucidator](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/elucidator)\ **Post date:** [October 3, 2008, 5:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/gwen-ifill-to-release-book-featuring-obama-in-january-wtf/465966/254 "2008-10-03T05:35:01Z")
Yeah, loved that “white flag of surrender” line, the pert and perky way she has of insinuating cowardice and/or treason. Adorable. ---
**Author:** ![Dag\_Otto](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/439d5e/32.png) [@Dag\_Otto](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dag_Otto)\ **Post date:** [October 3, 2008, 12:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/gwen-ifill-to-release-book-featuring-obama-in-january-wtf/465966/255 "2008-10-03T12:05:40Z")
> [@elucidator](#): > > Yeah, loved that “white flag of surrender” line, the pert and perky way she has of insinuating cowardice and/or treason. Adorable. The way **magellan01** has carried on through this thread, one would think you are talking about Gwen. ---
**Author:** ![Baldwin](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/baldwin/32/7264_2.png) [@Baldwin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Baldwin)\ **Post date:** [October 3, 2008, 12:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/gwen-ifill-to-release-book-featuring-obama-in-january-wtf/465966/256 "2008-10-03T12:38:48Z")
I wish Ifill had been firmer about trying to get both candidates to actually answer the questions – but that’s been true of every campaign “debate” I’ve seen over the years. I didn’t see any sign of favoritism. Palin successfully memorized her talking points. Here on the SDMB she’d be pathetic, but for a VP candidate “debate” she had what she needed. She also benefited from lowered expectations. ---
**Author:** ![Count\_Blucher](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/c5a1d2/32.png) [@Count\_Blucher](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Count_Blucher)\ **Post date:** [October 4, 2008, 1:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/gwen-ifill-to-release-book-featuring-obama-in-january-wtf/465966/257 "2008-10-04T01:10:51Z")
> [@elucidator](#): > > Yeah, loved that “white flag of surrender” line, the pert and perky way she has of insinuating cowardice and/or treason. Adorable. I have the most firm confidence in [General McClellan](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/George_B._McClellan) and the Army of the Potomac. Al-Qaeda will never take ‘Little Round Top’… 😃 ---
**Author:** ![tomndebb](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/b9e5f3/32.png) [@tomndebb](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tomndebb)\ **Post date:** [October 4, 2008, 2:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/gwen-ifill-to-release-book-featuring-obama-in-january-wtf/465966/258 "2008-10-04T02:00:30Z")
> [@Count\_Blucher](#): > > I have the most firm confidence in [General McClellan](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/George_B._McClellan) and the Army of the Potomac. Al-Qaeda will never take ‘Little Round Top’… 😃 Straight Dope fact insertion. McClellan had already been removed eight months prior to Gettysburg, so he will not be in charge when al Qaida attempts their next assault on that ridge. ---
**Author:** ![elucidator](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/8edcca/32.png) [@elucidator](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/elucidator)\ **Post date:** [October 4, 2008, 2:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/gwen-ifill-to-release-book-featuring-obama-in-january-wtf/465966/259 "2008-10-04T02:34:46Z")
There are pervasive rumors that Gen. Jubilation T. Cornpone (Cornpone’s Defeat, Cornpone’s Rout, and Cornpone’s Utter Humiliation) may be coaxed out of retirement. ---
**Author:** ![Oy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/bc8723/32.png) [@Oy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Oy)\ **Post date:** [October 4, 2008, 3:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/gwen-ifill-to-release-book-featuring-obama-in-january-wtf/465966/260 "2008-10-04T03:07:08Z")
> [@tomndebb](#): > > Straight Dope fact insertion. McClellan had already been removed eight months prior to Gettysburg, so he will not be in charge when al Qaida attempts their next assault on that ridge. And it’s a fairly safe bet that, having failed of election in 1864, he will also fail of election in 2008. For one thing, he makes McCain look like a spring chicken! ETA: For another thing, he’s dead. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/gwen-ifill-to-release-book-featuring-obama-in-january-wtf/465966.md?page=12) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/gwen-ifill-to-release-book-featuring-obama-in-january-wtf/465966.md?page=14)