Judging Gwen Ifill

There's a lot of criticism of Gwen Ifill's job as the moderator of the VP debate. Many people didn't feel that she did all that well. Supposedly, she didn't live up to her potential. Mostly, I think, it comes from Denocrats who are mostly annoyed that Ms. Ifill didn't reign in Sarah Palin for not answering questions and outright lying. But, I want to defend Gwen Ifill:

If Gwen Ifill actually moderated the VP debate, the McCain campaign would have attacked her heavily. In fact, they had already begun to try to attack her claiming that she'd be biased during the debate.

Let's be honest. We all know Caribou Barbie couldn't answer a question directly without dancing around the issue in her "folksy" way with a wink and then answering her own made-up question. She's the only person in the debate who wouldn't answer questions. Then, if you do follow up, she still dances around the issue. We saw it when she was interviewed by Charles Gibson and we saw it again when she was interviewed twice by Katie Couric. Sarah Palin can NOT answer questions. If she's not answering questions, she's repeating already debunked lies.

It's one thing when someone misunderstands or misstates the facts. You can be corrected there. It's a completely different issue when you're confronted with someone who never answers questions, doesn't know anything, and willingly lies. You can't correct that because the problem is mental. Gwen Ifill is a moderator, not a psychiatrist.

If Caribou Barbie, in her arrogance and self-importance, wants to continue to make herself look like a fool on a world stage, what right does Ms. Ifill have to stop her?

I think Gwen Ifill did as much as she could without putting herself in a bad situation. Anybody sitting in her seat would have been seen as biased if they followed up with questions or tried to get a straight answer. The McCain campaign did the same thing to Katie Couric. Honestly, I think if Gwen actually did her job in correcting Palin's lies and prodding her to actually answer a question, Caribou Barbie might have followed two ugly paths: blowing up at Ms. Ifill or running off the stage in tears. Either way, Gwen would have been blamed for being too tough on the mental lightweight.

Question: What if that were Condoleeza Rice, Hillary Clinton, or Geraldine Ferraro standing across from Joe Biden in that VP debate instead of Sarah Palin? Would anyone feel the need to be easy on them?