Being selected the moderator for a vice presidential debate is something like opening a suitcase on “Deal or No Deal” and finding $1,000. Nice prize, but it's no jackpot.
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“Vice Presidential Debate”
Sen. Joe Biden and Gov. Sarah Palin square off
When: 6 tonight (8 p.m. on KUSI, followed by local reactions)
Where: Various channels
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Not this year. Tonight's showdown between Joe Biden and Sarah Palin will likely put Gwen Ifill before the biggest TV audience of her life.
Given the extraordinary attention paid to the campaign and Palin's surprise selection as John McCain's running mate, this debate stands a strong chance of becoming the most-watched vice presidential debate ever. The standard was the 56.7 million viewers in 1984, when Geraldine Ferraro was the first woman selected for a major party ticket.
Despite breaking her ankle Monday, Ifill has been given the OK to travel to St. Louis, where the vice presidential debate is scheduled. The moderator of PBS' “Washington Week” and senior correspondent on “The NewsHour” is repeating her role from the 2004 debate between Dick Cheney and John Edwards. She had never done a debate before that and admitted she was nervous.
“The biggest pressure you have as a journalist ever is to make sure you get an answer to your question,” said Ifill, whose crowded résumé includes The New York Times, The Washington Post and NBC News. “That's what I'm focusing on – how to ask questions that elicit answers instead of spin, or in this case to elicit engagement between the two.”
Yesterday, Ifill dismissed conservative questions about her impartiality because she is writing a book that includes material on Barack Obama.
Ifill said that she hasn't even written her chapter on Obama for the book “The Breakthrough: Politics and Race in the Age of Obama,” which is to be published by Doubleday on Jan. 20, inauguration day.
“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,” Ifill said. “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.”
The McCain campaign found out about Ifill's book in the last day or so, a spokesman said.
Ifill said Obama's story, which she has yet to write, is only a small part of the book, which discusses how politics in the black community have changed since the civil rights era. Among those subjects is Colin Powell.
The format of tonight's debate offers Ifill great freedom. Questions on domestic or international issues are allowed, and it's up to her to decide the mix.
Colleagues suggest questions. So do viewers, people at her gym or folks she meets on the street. She politely takes them all, recognizing she has no monopoly on wisdom, but it doesn't necessarily mean she'll use them. Her goal is to help viewers learn something new about the candidates.
People sometimes forget it's a debate, not an inquisition, Ifill said.
“People who watch these debates are incredibly engaged,” she said. “I don't have to chase the candidates around the table to make them answer questions. The people will know whether a question has been answered or not.”
There will be no shortage of armchair moderators. That's nothing new for Ifill, who a few weeks ago was involved in one of the more bizarre second-guessing episodes of the campaign.
PBS' ombudsman, Michael Getler, received some letters from viewers complaining about Ifill's facial expressions following Palin's speech to the Republican convention. Even though Ifill said that GOP delegates “exploded with excitement” over Palin's speech, those viewers apparently believed Ifill didn't seem sufficiently excited herself.
Huh? Her facial expression?
“In this blog-yourself age, we are all subject to that kind of scrutiny,” Ifill said. “If you're frowning to think and you're sitting at a computer keyboard to write a piece for the AP, nobody sees you frown to think. If you're frowning to think after a long night on your feet on the (convention) floor with people around you, you're not even aware that your face is frowning to think. You're just thinking.”
