The Gist

Sleazy and Sensational

Those are the words that describe the ABC News debate last night between Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama. It's not that the questions about Wright and guns and other silliness are not newsworthy -- they've certainly been in the campaigns prominently -- but rather the sheer overkill, with the moderators as obssessed with these issues as any right-wing crank. The entire first hour was spent on these issues, with little substantial debate about other issues. This seems to me to be a taste of what we're going to get in the general election, as the right pressures the media to distract, distract, distract.


UPDATE: So now we find out that Sean Hannity actually helped put on the sleazefest -- not a surprise -- giving some talking points to George Stepanopoulos.