The Ultimate Idiocy of Identity Politics

Gwen Ifill is under attack as moderator of the VP debate because she has written a book about how African-American politicians have moved beyond the identity simplicities of the civil rights struggle.

Immune to irony, Conservatives are preemptively piling on with accusations of prejudice, even though the book has been common knowledge for some time.

Michelle Malkin argues in a post on National Review that Ifill is "so far in the tank for the Democratic presidential candidate, her oxygen delivery line is running."

Proof that Ifill is not objective, some contend, can be seen in her facial expressions after Palin's acceptance speech during the Republican National Convention last month. "Those viewers apparently believed Ifill didn't seem sufficiently excited," the AP reported today.

"We're very lazy when we think about race in this country," Ifill has said in describing the theme of her book. "We love simplistic conflict."

The Fox News gang is proving that with a headline on their blog: "VP Debate Moderator Pens Pro-Obama Book."

Shirley Chisholm, who ran for president in 1972, always insisted that she encountered more prejudice over her gender than her race. On that basis, Democrats should be railing about Ifill because of possible favoritism toward Palin as one woman to another.

Or maybe they should all shut up and see whether or not Palin can ace her test tomorrow night.

Kristol's Wet Kiss

Mike Huckabee will no doubt recover, but being drooled on by William Kristol in the New York Times must be an unnerving experience. I know it is for me.

After half a century of Tom Wicker, James Reston, Tom Friedman et al, Kristol's maiden column is a cliché-ridden, condescending noblesse oblige nod from the "well-born" conservative aristocracy to the hick from Arkansas, "a likable regular guy" for "the work-hard-to-get-ahead strivers who represent the heart and soul of the G.O.P." You can take Michelle Malkin's word for that.

But with Democrats "licking their chops" at a possible Huckabee nomination while "a nation turns its gateful eyes" to Barack Obama for defeating Hillary Clinton, what, "inquiring minds want to know," will Kristol have to tell us next week?

Stay tuned, and bring a towel.