9/11 Presidential Forum - soap box moment

Soap Box Moment

Last night I happened to catch the second half of the 9/11 presidential forum hosted by Columbia University on the Fox News Channel. We tuned in during the interview with Barack Obama. Hopefully it will be repeated at some point, so I can see what McCain had to say.

Several things crossed my mind while watching Obama field the questions from Judy Woodruff and Richard Stengel.

Obama reminded me of having a job interview. Most of the time when you go out for job interviews, you research the company and basically gear your answers to the philosophy or needs of that company. If you get the art of the interview down, you become a excellent bs artist. Tell them what they want to hear in order to get hired. Believe me, I did it millions of times over the years. His demeanor, attitude, words and physical mannerisms were geared entirely to presenting himself in the best possible way and telling the interviewers what they wanted to hear in order to get hired. He does a good interview.

He made several comments about the need to have a civilian force to support the military force in Iraq to help rebuild the infrastructure. Apparently he is entirely unaware of all the engineers and business men over in Iraq who helped to restore energy, cell phone service, internet service, rebuild school and businesses and provide supplies. Check out Operation Iraqi Freedom, the official website of the Multi National Force and see what has been accomplished over in Iraq. It is an eyeopener.

Then you had Judy woodruff with her furrowed brows providing leading questions. You know, those questions that really aren’t questions at all, but a running commentary leading the interviewee to the point where they agree with what the interviewer said. Stengle in my opinion was just smarmy. Obama and McCain had made the agreement to be united for the day in honor of September 11. Stengle kept trying to get Obama to slam McCain, but he didn’t fall for it.

When that ended, you had Britt Hume and his panel discussing the forum and also showing clips from Charlie Gibson’s interview with Sarah Palin. With gritted teeth, literally, they all tried to play nice.


After that was over, Hannity and Colmes came on. I rarely watch it because they drive me crazy talking over and interrupting their guests after asking them a question. Anyway, they had several more clips of the Sarah Palin Interview. I do have to say she is grace under pressure. I would really like to watch the whole interview rather than just clips Fox decides to show, because we all know they are “unbiased.” Don’t get me started…..

I am impressed with Sarah Palin. At first, I wasn’t too terribly thrilled with McCain when he chose this unknown woman governor from Alaska. Personally I had never heard of her and my first thought was “Is he trying to lose?” After I saw several interviews with her and watched her speech during the Republican Convention, I changed my mind. She is the right choice.