Don't Expect the VP Debate to Be Good for Romney

[Townhallsavoy]

President Barack Obama was a guest at the 1991 wedding of ABC senior foreign correspondent and vice presidential debate moderator Martha Raddatz, The Daily Caller has learned. Obama and groom Julius Genachowski, whom Obama would later tap to head the Federal Communications Commission, were Harvard Law School classmates at the time and members of the Harvard Law Review.

After TheDC made preliminary inquiries Monday to confirm Obama’s attendance at the wedding, ABC leaked a pre-emptive statement to liberal-leaning news outlets including Politico and The Daily Beast Tuesday, revealing what may have been internal network pressure felt just days before Raddatz was scheduled to moderate the one and only vice-presidential debate Thursday night.

Both Politico and The Daily Beast jumped to ABC and Raddatz’s defense. The Huffington Post, another liberal news outlet, joined them shortly thereafter, while calling “unusual” ABC’s attempt to kill the story before it gained wide circulation.

Genachowski — called “Jay” at the time of his wedding, sources told TheDC — and Raddatz would go on to have a son together before their divorce in 1997. They have both since remarried to other people.

A source who attended the 1991 wedding told TheDC that Obama was also a guest there, and remembered that a man by the name of “Barry Obama” was among the guests dancing at the reception. (RELATED: Marital, personal ties link Obama administration to Commission on Presidential Debates)

In august The Daily Caller first connected Genachowski, an Obama appointee, to Raddatz following her selection as the vice presidential debate moderator by the left-leaning Commission on Presidential Debates. That debate, between Congressman Paul Ryan and Vice President Joe Biden, will take place Thursday night at Centre College in Danville, Kentucky.

Carol Platt Liebau, a political commentator who was a Harvard Law Review colleague of Genachowski and Obama, wrote that “despite being a year below both men on the Review and not close personal friends with either of them,” she remembered Genachowski and Raddatz’s relationship as “quite public” during those days, and that “Raddatz visited Boston frequently.”

Genachowski’s friendship with Obama would continue through the campaign trail in 2008 and into the White House: He aggressively fundraised for Obama in 2008 as a campaign bundler, and served on the presidential transition team before winning his appointment to chair the FCC.

On Monday evening ABC spokesman David Ford grudgingly confirmed Obama’s attendance at the wedding, after shielding Raddatz in August by declining to comment when The Daily Caller first reported the story.

“This is absurd,” Ford said, in the same statement now circulated by ABC’s media allies on the left.

Obama, Ford wrote, “attended their wedding over two decades ago along with nearly the entire Law Review, many of whom went onto successful careers, including some in the Bush administration,” he said without providing a specific number of Harvard Law Review employees to verify the statement.

When pressed further on Tuesday for a specific number of Harvard Law Review employees in attendance at the wedding, Ford could offer none, despite circulating the same unverified approximation through sympathetic media outlets earlier that day in order to discredit The Daily Caller’s reporting.

Ford also could not provide The Daily Caller with a specific number of Harvard Law Review employees who worked with Obama and Genachowski during that year. A photo taken of the Harvard Law Review during Obama and Genachowski’s final year of law school contains 70 people.


The ABC spokesman’s assertion that “nearly the entire Law Review” attended the wedding cast doubt on the significance of Obama’s attendance. But Ford’s unwillingness to document that claim now suggests that Obama was among a close circle of fewer Harvard classmates who were personal friends of Raddatz and Genachowski.

Instead, Ford maintained his ambiguity in subsequent statements to The Daily Caller, identifying only one other Harvard Law Review classmate of Obama and Genachowski who attended the wedding.

When TheDC asked Ford via email Tuesday night for further specifics on actual numbers, he did not respond with any.

The FCC, the Obama campaign and the Romney campaign also did not respond to The Daily Caller’s request for comment.



Read more: http://dailycaller.com/2012/10/10/abc-news-scrambles-to-cover-up-barack-obamas-attendance-at-vp-debate-moderators-wedding/#ixzz28u1ixXEl

[Tarheel]

It's just always best to assume that anyone in the MSM world is always in the tank for the Democrats.  Always.

[Kaos]

Doesn't seem to be good for Romney. 

The moderator isn't doing Ryan any favors, but it seems to me that he is getting his ass thoroughly kicked by a goofy old man. 

[Townhallsavoy]

Doesn't seem to be good for Romney. 

The moderator isn't doing Ryan any favors, but it seems to me that he is getting his ass thoroughly kicked by a goofy old man.

Undecideds will be turned off by Biden's incessant laughing.  But the moderator, just like I expected, has made sure Ryan's points have been silenced.  Biden talks ove I'm and she talks over him. 

[Townhallsavoy]

After a lot of time spent on foreign policy and a little on the economy, we end with women and abortion.  A healthy country would spend tomorrow lambasting this moderator, but now we have to talk about an irrelevant topic that is only spun negatively for republicans. 

[Townhallsavoy]

And notice no interruptions at all for Ryan's opening statement on abortion.

[Kaos]

And notice no interruptions at all for Ryan's opening statement on abortion.

He stopped short of saying Roe v. Wade would survive.  He will be eviscerated within hours.  He should have addressed that.  They are going to spin women against him HARD. 

 

[Townhallsavoy]

He stopped short of saying Roe v. Wade would survive.  He will be eviscerated within hours.  He should have addressed that.  They are going to spin women against him HARD. 

 

Yep.  Perfect strategy by the dems.  I don't mind them playing tough but not during a debate that should have no influence by the moderator.  Maybe Glenn beck can do the next one. 

[CCTAU]

That twit allowed Biden to run roughshod and kept cutting Ryan off. This thread topic was right on!

[Townhallsavoy]

To be fair, Ryan did himself no favors by playing it cool the entire time.  He could have been more aggressive early on to shut Biden's interrupting ass up. 

[Tiger Wench]

Here's the thing?  And I am not trying to start an abortion discussion - I am just commenting on the fact that this will even be a topic of discussion.

Only really extremist women - rabid libs and hard core conservatives - will let a politician's stance on abortion absolutely make or break their vote.  Most women are like me - abortion should not be birth control on a whim, but by the same token, I should not be forced by law to endure an unwanted pregnancy, especially in instances of rape, etc.  We also know that even with the chance a Pres will have to nominate a SCOTUS justice, the odds of R v W being overturned are slim and none.

Most women like me have bigger worries on their mind - the economy, taxes, national security, etc. Social issues have to take a back seat because of the REAL fucked up problems facing this country.  I don't have the luxury of worrying about Ryan's stance on abortion because I care more about his positions on the economy.  I am not voting against Obama because of his stance on gay marriage, but because I am too afraid he is going to turn this nation into another Venezuela.  It would be nice to be able to narrow it down that much, but you have to choose the candidate you track with MOST of the time.  There is no ALL of the time.

When we solve all the other problems that have a direct impact on my own family, then we can address social issues.

So it pisses me off when the extremists on both sides scream loudest about the trivial stuff when it's the real problems that need to be addressed first.  Why this was even brought up in the first place also pisses me off.  I want to hear Ryan explain his plan for the economy, and now all I will hear for the next week concerning this debate is how he hates women - even though for most women, his pro-life opinion or Biden's derp opinion has ZERO effect on my voting decision. 

[Townhallsavoy]

They know abortion doesn't matter; however, they also know that it's an easy way to demonize the right.  Abortion and recently contraception are just segues for the media to brand Romney and republicans as out of touch religious fanatics. 

[Snaggletiger]

I watched 30 minutes of it. I have no idea how any of you took anything away from that debate regarding where either man stood.  I was so pissed off and distracted by Biden's clowny, disrespectful ass and the moderator's blatant interruptions everytime Ryan opened his mouth, I left before I punched out the TV.  I literally was standing right in front of it hollering.  I'm amazed how over the top that was.

[Townhallsavoy]

I hope that someone will call out Biden for being smarmy and giggly when discussing the deaths of Americans in Libya, the turmoil in the middle east, and the instability of the already failing economy.  The only time he help his composure and seemed legitimately concerned about a subject was when discussing abortion. 

[AUTiger1]

I hope that someone will call out Biden for being smarmy and giggly when discussing the deaths of Americans in Libya, the turmoil in the middle east, and the instability of the already failing economy.  The only time he help his composure and seemed legitimately concerned about a subject was when discussing abortion.

 

[GH2001]

To be fair, Ryan did himself no favors by playing it cool the entire time.  He could have been more aggressive early on to shut Biden's interrupting ass up.

Disagree. Ryan played it perfect being cool and letting Biden sink himself. Worked like a charm and Ryan barely broke a sweat.

For the record interruptions: Biden 96, Ryan 6

I'm sure a ton of undecideds watched and said "you know, I really like that rude old grumpy jackass"

[Snaggletiger]

Disagree. Ryan played it perfect being cool and letting Biden sink himself. Worked like a charm and Ryan barely broke a sweat.

For the record interruptions: Biden 96, Ryan 6

I'm sure a ton of undecideds watched and said "you know, I really like that rude old grumpy jackass"

I sure hope that's the case.  I honestly think Biden did feel the pressure to take up the slack for Obama's fail and took it so far to the extreme, that he did in fact make himself look like a complete jackass. And I felt for Ryan having to look at whatever the hell that beast was, moderating.  Holy shit, that was one hideous looking creature.

[GH2001]

I sure hope that's the case.  I honestly think Biden did feel the pressure to take up the slack for Obama's fail and took it so far to the extreme, that he did in fact make himself look like a complete jackass. And I felt for Ryan having to look at whatever the hell that beast was, moderating.  Holy shit, that was one hideous looking creature.

was that a woman? Yikes

[Kaos]

was that a woman? Yikes

She did have a little bit of trouble staying neutral