ABC's Walters Praises ABC's Debate Performance

By Justin McCarthy | April 18, 2008 | 14:37

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Despite the liberal media’s outrage over ABC’s handling of the Democratic debate, ABC’s "The View" had no criticism. On the April 17 edition, Barbara Walters actually praised Gibson and Stephanopoulos for the tough questions. She also noted the candidates made "some very important points...that we have not heard before." Even reliably left wing partisan Joy Behar, also an ABC employee, had no criticisms.

Discussing Charlie Gibson’s question if the winner of the nomination will pick the runner up as a running mate, Joy Behar finally discovered that the Constitution originally awarded the second place finisher to the vice presidency. Did Behar learn this through extensive research or just simply reading the Constitution? Nope. She acquired this knowledge from watching HBO.

BEHAR: I’ve been watching the "John Adams" miniseries on HBO I believe, or Showtime. And in those days, the president, who was elected by the Electoral College, got to be the president. And the second, who got the second most votes, was automatically the vice president.

GOLDBERG: Which is what I said months ago.

BEHAR: So that really is very American from the founding fathers to the-

[...]

BEHAR: But it shows you that, that’s what the people want

As NewsBusters reported last month, Whoopi Goldberg called for just that, not realizing it was originally written in the Constitution.

Joy Behar seemingly learns everything from pop culture. The discussion turned to whether the next president will listen to the top generals on how to handle Iraq. Behar opined that sometimes the generals may be wrong and alluded to the Cuban Missile Crisis, though most of her information was from the crisis’ portrayal in the movie "13 Days." However, Behar could not even get the movie’s name as both her and Whoopi Goldberg called the movie "30 Days in May." The Cuban Missile Crisis occurred in October.

The entire transcript is below.

BARBARA WALTERS: First of all, I think it was the toughest debate. I mean the questions that George Stephanopoulos and Charlie Gibson asked, not because it was ABC. But they were very strong questions with material not a lot of people have heard before. And reading today and watching it last night, Hillary came off as certainly the most experienced. Barack was kind of on the defensive. But there were still, I don’t know how you felt, but still there was almost this feeling of, reminded that she was attacking, and he still seemed to be sort of above the fray. That, that she almost lost for winning. Does that make any sense?

JOY BEHAR: I thought that, in the words of George Bush, it’s awesome to see such smart people running for president.

[laughter and applause]

WALTERS: There were some very important points made that we have not heard before.

ELISABETH HASSELBECK: And I thought there were great follow up questions by both Charlie and George. I thought that they handled it incredibly well as you and I thought. I thought Senator Clinton actually dealt with those questions with specifics. You know, things that we’ll be able to go back and say "well you said here that we’re going to do to this or that." And, should she become the president, Senator Oba- Obama was a little bit more general. And he sort of seemed to, he couldn’t almost find answers to world policy when it came to taxes he went back and forth. He said, "well there’s a vague bracket between if you make $97,000 and 250. We’ll have to figure out what we’re going to do with your taxes." Well, you better tell me what you’re going to do with my taxes.

BEHAR: You should use that question to John McCain, too, because he has made the statement he doesn’t know anything about the economy.

HASSELBECK: He does, he does not say that.

BEHAR: Yes he did.

[applause]

HASSELBECK: That is a lie- I don’t know any- find me the quote- find me the quote where he said "I don’t know anything about the economy." Because that’s a lie.

BEHAR: It’s not a lie.

SHEPHERD: When he says the economy is fundamentally sound, it sounds like you don’t know anything about the economy.

HASSELBECK: The economy as a structure. He was referring to the structure.

SHEPHERD: I don’t think the structure is real sound.

[...]

WALTERS: Both of them said that they will have troop withdrawal. I think Senator Clinton said what did she say? 60 days.

SHEPHERD: 60 days.

WALTERS: And then each of them was asked very specifically, "well, what if the generals say it’s going to be chaos? Would you change your mind?" Both of them said "we are the- I am the commander-in-chief. We have to make the decisions and it seems there’s going to be chaos no matter what." I thought those were very strong. What did you think?

HASSELBECK: I think it’s going to come in to play in the general election. When they say that, I think that’s going to be a huge issue when it comes down to it.

BEHAR: You know, I remember, because I’m old enough to remember, and I saw the movie also [laughter] of the Cuban Missile Crisis. I think it’s called "30 days"?

WHOOPI GOLDBERG: "30 Days in May."

BEHAR: "30 Days in May" and it was all about Kennedy dealing with the Cuban Missile Crisis. And the, all the generals said that we should be much more bellicose, meaning, you know, go after them militarily. And he did not do that. He did a back door deal. He exchanged something with Turkey and he did some diplomatic thing. And he, he ignored, basically ignored the generals. When you watch that movie, you see that a really intelligent president like President Kennedy, did not listen al- did not always listen to the generals. They are the commander-in-chief, the presidents.

[...]

BEHAR: I’ve been watching the "John Adams" miniseries on HBO I believe, or Showtime. And in those days, the president, who was elected by the Electoral College, got to be the president. And the second, who got the second most votes, was automatically the vice president.