The American Pundit

Much of the (far) left is in a tizzy over last night’s debate, supposedly angry that Obama and Clinton weren’t simply allowed to repeat their usual talking points on Iraq, global warming, and (the ever-popular) compassion.

How dare ABC decide to wander off the beaten (to death) path and ask questions about ethics, controversies, and honesty! Don’t they know they’re only supposed to allow the candidates to call for retreat in Iraq, talk about the importance of socialized health care, and again tell us how we’re going to have give something up for the common good?

Some nutroots (via Michelle) have completely lost it and are calling for ABC News’ broadcast license to be pulled:

President Barack should pull their Broadcasting License…We expect Objectivity George! We’re Watching you!

And by “objectivity” they mean “more softball questions for Barry Bear”. No more of those questions about his actual judgment, ethics, and honesty. We have more important questions to get to, like how much changiness hopeful goodness he’s going to bring to people everywhere.

Update: Here’s WaPo columnist Tom Shales telling us how absolutely ashamed ABC News should be.

For the first 52 minutes of the two-hour, commercial-crammed show, Gibson and Stephanopoulos dwelled entirely on specious and gossipy trivia that already has been hashed and rehashed, in the hope of getting the candidates to claw at one another over disputes that are no longer news. Some were barely news to begin with.

Yeah, non-newsworthy items like Rezko, Obama’s association with a pastor that hates America, etc.. We should probably just get back to allowing Obama to issue his unchallenged talking points on Iraq…again.

He came up with such tired tripe as a charge that Obama once associated with a nutty bomb-throwing anarchist. That was “40 years ago, when I was 8 years old,” Obama said with exasperation.

I’m assuming the “nutty bomb-throwing anarchist” is William Ayres, whom Obama visited in 1995. The Obama campaign also accepted a $200 donations from Ayres. Ayres has never apologized for what he did.

Obama was right on the money when he complained about the campaign being bogged down in media-driven inanities and obsessiveness over any misstatement a candidate might make along the way, whether in a speech or while being eavesdropped upon by the opposition. The tactic has been to “take one statement and beat it to death,” he said.

Like Obama riding the “100 year war” meme to death, even while the MSM itself was telling him he’s wrong?

This is precisely what has happened with widely reported comments that Obama made about working-class people “clinging” to religion and guns during these times of cynicism about their federal government.

That’s a nice summary to downplay his remarks, but Obama actually called small towners bitter, gun and religion-clutching, anti-immigrant bigots. He then went on to say that they’re already skeptical about a solution that doesn’t involve being cynical about the government, but they add even more skepticism when it comes from a Black man.