V.P. Debate poll

[Molon Labe]

Originally Posted by Konovalov

A tie. Neither made any giant gaffes. It wasn't the train wreck that I thought it may be. Fairly dull.

The only thing of any real interest that struck me was how impartial and professional the moderator was given the host of complaints and outrage by some members on this forum and by the McCain campaign.

Oh yeah, and that single VP debate ain't going to make jack of a difference come the November election but everyone knew that anyway.

I didn't weigh in on that on this board, but it professional conduct at the debate doesn't excuse the conflict of interest. The fact of the matter is that she has a financial stake in the outcome of the election, likely worth hundreds of thousands of dollars. And she did not disclose this conflict of interest to the board that runs the debates. That was unethical by any standard.

Being an attorney, I tend to compare things like this to the way things work in my profession. All joking about our trade aside, we take professional ethics seriously. Journalists should have a sense of ethics too. Had Ifill been a judge and had Palin and Biden as parties before her, and not disclosed her conflict and recused herself from the case, she would have been disbarred from practice and probably prosecuted for corruption. It would not have been a defense had she in fact been able to preside over the case fairly, professional ethics demand that when you have a financial stake in one of the parties, you do not preside over their cases, PERIOD. Ifill should never be selected to moderate any debate ever again.