AMERICAblog: A great nation deserves the truth
ABC's George Stephanopoulos in today's Washington Post, defending his handling of the Democratic presidential debate earlier this week:"You can't do a tougher question for Senator Clinton than 'six out of 10 Americans don't think you're honest.' "Oh please. How about any question that starts with the words "Monica Lewinksy."
The fact is that ABC thought it would be rude and boorish to ask anything about Monica or Bill Clinton's affairs, even though we will most certainly be hearing about them in the fall should Hillary be the nominee. (And after all, isn't that ABC's standard for smut? If it's going to come up in the fall, we'll ask it first!) And it didn't have to be a sex question for Hillary, it could have been a character question.
For example... I spoke a short while back with a women's rights leader about Hillary, and asked her why she was upset with Hillary for not leaving Bill Clinton. I argued - believe it or not - that Hillary was right to get some return on her investment in this marriage in order to finally help her career too. The women's leader responded: "Your self-respect is more important than a job." That's the kind of Monica question ABC could have asked Hillary, one that would have been relevant to her character. But they didn't.
ABC went there with Obama - I mean, come on, asking him if his pastor loves America? - but ABC didn't go there with Hillary. I'm not sure going there with both candidates would have made anyone happier, but please don't insult our intelligence and suggest that there were no harsher questions you could have asked Hillary. ABC decided to make no topic untouchable in Obama's life. But they did in Hillary's.
