'Brilliant' Ifill Cousin Scours Palin As 'Offensive to Black Women'

From: http://newsbusters.org/blogs/tim-graham/2008/10/02/brilliant-ifill-cousin-scours-palin-offensive-black-women

'Brilliant' Ifill Cousin Scours Palin As 'Offensive to Black Women'
Photo of Tim Graham.
By Tim Graham (Bio | Archive)
October 2, 2008 - 06:48 ET

Here are more signs Sarah Palin could face an uphill battle with PBS host Gwen Ifill. Professor Sherrilyn Ifill of the University of Maryland Law School, whom Gwen Ifill has lauded as "my brilliant baby cousin," has written that black women are not buying Sarah Palin’s "false claims to feminism" and is portrayed as too perfect: "when women who are privileged present as though they have it all together, it’s offensive to black women." (Photo from Soros.com)

The Community Times, a suburban Maryland newspaper, found Professor Ifill was ardently opposed to the Alaska governor when they did an e-mail interview:

"From the first day, Palin presented herself as shooting a bear in the morning, field dressing it, cooking up the breakfast, diapering the babies, passing legislation in the afternoon, cleaning the house, satisfying her husband, etc., etc., etc. And it's just not true," she wrote in an e-mail interview. "It's hard to be an average working mom, really hard. And when women who are privileged present as though they have it all together, it's offensive to black women."

She said, "black women are not easily confused by false claims to feminism. When women like Palin lay claims to ‘representing' average women, I think that black women have a visceral reaction to it."

Ifill added that Palin "missed her opportunity when she announced Bristol's pregnancy to explicitly talk about how painful it was to her as a mother - instead of making it as though this too was also part of her perfect life.

"Hillary has the sympathy of women because of what she went through with Bill in front of the whole country. Michelle [Obama] takes pains to be self-deprecating and to talk about her concerns and fear about her girls. She insists that she couldn't do what she does without the help of her mother. Most importantly, both champion issues that affect the lives of real, average women - universal health care, equal pay, choice, etc. To do so is a recognition that real working women (not political wives or politicians) need policies that will help them maintain their families. What's the point of Palin's brand of feminism if it doesn't translate into real returns for average women?"

It can be noted that the professor is so passionate an Obama supporter that she also denounced Hillary Clinton as a phony feminist: "When she knocked back a shot and a beer in that bar in Pennsylvania, Mrs. Clinton ended any pretense of running as a feminist." She compared it to Michael Dukakis in a tank, a failed "macho stunt."

Gwen Ifill’s family pride came through in her monthly washingtonpost.com online chat on October 4, 2007:

Pittsburgh, Pa.: Is Professor Sherrilyn Ifill at the University of Maryland Law School, who's spoken out so eloquently and thoughtfully on symbols of racial hatred lately, any relation to you?

Gwen Ifill: She is indeed my brilliant baby cousin, and the author of an excellent book "On the Courthouse Lawn: Confronting the Legacy of Lynching in the 20th Century."

Cousin Gwen supported that book at an event at the liberal D.C. bookstore Politics and Prose. As The Politico reported in February of 2007:

Ifill's reading illustrates how decisions are made. She had everything you need: a name to draw a crowd (her cousin, moderator of PBS's "Washington Week," introduced her); a friendship with Jim Lehrer of "The News Hour," also on PBS; and a book with a liberal, social-justice bent, about lynchings that took place outside the Deep South.

"Jim Lehrer's a great friend of the store," Meade said, adding that the store probably would have held the reading anyway, given the content of Ifill's book. "If it's something that involves civil rights, civil liberties, we're pretty interested in it usually."

The idea that Politics and Prose has a liberal bias has caused the store some consternation, but it's rooted in reality. The bookstore draws a graying, turtleneck crowd in a neighborhood known for its liberal politics in a city that gave George W. Bush fewer than 22,000 votes in 2004. Would you expect the shelves to be buckling under the weight of Sean Hannity and Co.'s latest books?

The bookstore's most well-known snub went to Matt Drudge, a conservative and the creator of The Drudge Report. Cohen reportedly called him "a rumormonger and a troublemaker" in 2000 when the store rejected his request for a reading.

(Hat tip: Chris R.)

—Tim Graham is Director of Media Analysis at the Media Research Center

OCTOBER SURPRISE? Will Sen. Biden, citing health concerns (aneurysms), step down for Sen. Clinton? Snopes.com is on it.

Update: Status at Snopes has been changed to: False
Claim: Joe Biden is planning to step down from the vice-presidential slot on the Democratic ticket in favor of Hillary Clinton.

Status: Undetermined.

Example: [Collected via e-mail, September 2008]

On or about October 5th, Biden will excuse himself from the ticket, citing health problems, and he will be replaced by Hillary. This is timed to occur after the VP debate on 10/2.

There have been talks all weekend about how to proceed with this info. Generally, the feeling is that we should all go ahead and get it out there to as many blog sites and personal email lists as is possible. I have
already seen a few short blurbs about this - the 'health problem' cited in those articles was aneurysm. Probably many of you have heard the same rumblings.

However, at this point, with this inside info from the DNC, it looks like this Obama strategy will be a go. Therefore, it seems that the best strategy is to get out in front of this Obama maneuver, spell it out in detail, and thereby expose it for the grand manipulation that it is.

So, let's start mixing this one up and cut the Obamites off at the pass - send this info out to as many people as you can - post about it on websites and blogs - etc.

Origins: Rumors about changes in vice-presidential candidates have already popped up at times in recent presidential elections. In 2004 an Internet-circulated rumor claimed that President George W. Bush was planning to dump Dick Cheney and choose a different running mate; and immediately after Senator John McCain announced that Alaska Governor Sarah Palin was his choice for the vice-presidential slot on the 2008 Republican ticket, even the mainstream press was reporting some vague rumblings that she might quickly be dropped in favor of a different candidate.

Now yet another rumor of this category has appeared, claiming that Senator Joe Biden will cite health concerns as a reason for stepping down as the vice-presidential candidate on the 2008 Democratic ticket, to be replaced by Senator Hillary Clinton. The dates cited for the announcement of Biden's resignation are variously reported to be "early October," "after the VP debate," "October 2nd," or "October 5th."

It's difficult to definitively prove a negative, but rumors of Biden's replacement as a VP candidate seem to be nothing more than e-mail chatter at this point, and reports of Biden's health issues in the press appear to be mostly biographical mentions that he was hospitalized in 1988 after suffering from two brain aneurysms. No presidential candidate has switched running mates in the middle of a campaign since George McGovern replaced Thomas Eagleton with Sargent Shriver just 18 days after the 1972 Democratic convention (Eagleton stepped down when reports surfaced that he had previously been hospitalized for nervous exhaustion and received electroshock therapy), with disastrous results: McGovern lost in an electoral landslide. A strategy of calculatedly springing a change of running mates on the public just before an election carries the danger of proving a double-edged sword: Whatever boost Barack Obama's campaign might conceivably gain by swapping Joe Biden for Hillary Clinton just a month before the general election might also be more than offset by criticism that such a last-minute switch demonstrated poor decision-making ability and was indicative of a weak and vacillating presidential candidate.

Last updated: 18 September 2008

Sen. Biden even gives a mention that Hillary may have been a better pick for VP than him.


Rush Limbaugh gives mention to this possibility on Fox News Channel's On the Record with Greta Van Susteren:

Thompson won't debate Huckabee

Thompson Campaign Says No to Huckabee Debate Challenge

September 11, 2007

The Brody File has been told by Fred Thompson's campaign that he will NOT debate Mike Huckabee one on one. Huckabee had issued the debate challenge last week. Here's what Thompson's Communication Director Todd Harris just told me:

“We have the greatest respect for Gov. Huckabee and respect his desire to elevate the discourse in this campaign. But there are nine people running for the GOP nomination and an arbitrary pairing of just two of them does a disservice to the voters. We will push hard for Lincoln-Douglas style debates once we get into the General Election, when there are only two candidates running.”

To be fair to Thompson, when he said ON The Tonight Show that he backed Newt Gingrich’s debate plan, that plan was for the General Election, not the primaries. You can read about the Gingrich plan here.

You can read more about Mike Huckabee’s challenge to Thompson here.

I will say to Huckabee’s credit he is the only candidate so far that has officially endorsed Gingrich’s debate plan, though Thompson sounds like he’s ok with it too.

Everybody talks about how Thompson will be a thorn in the side of Romney. It looks to me like Huckabee will be a thorn in the side of Thompson. All of them want to be the social conservative guy.

http://www.cbn.com/CBNnews/229168.aspx

Huckabee to debate Thompson one-on-one?

Read this letter from Mike Huckabee to Fred Thompson.

September 7, 2007

The Honorable Fred Thompson
1130 Eighth Avenue South
Nashville, TN 37203

Dear Senator Thompson, Welcome to the 2008 Presidential race. I look forward to seeing you on the trail in the upcoming days, weeks, and months ahead.

I share your view of the debates and agree that Newt's "Nine Nineties in Nine" concept is a far better way to make sure America's next President has the character and capacity to lead our nation forward, and that's why I have already signed that pledge. I agree that what is needed is a real discussion by the candidates about their vision for the future of our country.

The debates so far have not offered an in-depth discussion on critical issues such as health care, education, energy independence, in addition to terrorism and national security.

I am aware of your comments on Fox News that you would like to participate in a series of Lincoln Douglas-styled debates. I would like to officially accept your offer and look forward to working with your staff to schedule this. I would suggest we start this series in New Hampshire.

At the end of these debates, the American people will know each candidate far greater and would be able to choose which candidate possesses the depth of knowledge on the issues and has the character and capacity to lead or great nation. More importantly, the American people would be able to rely on a true conversation on the issues, instead of just 30-second ads and soundbites to decide which candidate has the right vision for America's future.

Senator, let's lead by example and get the ball rolling. I look forward to hearing your thoughts on this idea and debating you in front of the American people.

Sincerely,

Mike Huckabee Former Governor of Arkansas (1996-2007)