In the midst of being pounded by Wolf Blitzer and other CNN panelists about Republican VP nominee Sarah Palin's supposedly inadequate experience, Rudy Giuliani wondered late Tuesday afternoon: “Why did Barack Obama get a pass on his experience? And why is Sarah Palin's experience, which from the executive point of view is considerably more than Barack Obama's, under such scrutiny?” Blitzer retorted:
But who says he's [Obama] been getting a pass? He's been scrutinized for months and months and months.
To which, a laughing Giuliani scoffed: “I haven't seen the scrutiny of his experience or his record.” Blitzer then, seriously, asked: "Do you read your hometown newspaper, the New York Times?” Giuliani, still trying to get his words out while laughing at Blitzer's premise at the end of the first hour of The Situation Room, lightheartedly suggested: “Maybe that's the problem. I read the New York Times and I haven't seen much scrutiny of Barack Obama in the New York Times.”
Audio: MP3 clip (30 seconds, 175 Kb)
Two MRC studies released in August support Giuliani's assessment of the media:
“Editing Reverend Wright’s Wrongs: How the Networks Censored and Manipulated Jeremiah Wright Soundbites and Glorified Barack Obama’s Race Speech”
“Obama’s Margin of Victory: The Media; How Barack Obama Could Not Have Won the Democratic Nomination Without ABC, CBS and NBC”
And the MRC's TimesWatch site has been tracking all year how the New York Times has gone easy on Obama's background.
The exchange, from the floor of the Xcel Energy Center, at about a minute before 5 PM EDT/4 PM CDT:
RUDY GIULIANI: Why did Barack Obama get a pass on his experience? And why is Sarah Palin's experience, which from the executive point of view is considerably more than Barack Obama's, under such scrutiny?
WOLF BLITZER: But who says he's been getting a pass? He's been scrutinized for months and months and months.
GIULIANI, LAUGHING: I haven't seen the scrutiny of his experience or his record.
BLITZER: Do you read your hometown newspaper, the New York Times?
GIULIANI: I do, that's why I don't see -- I do read it. Maybe that's the problem. I read the New York Times and I haven't seen much scrutiny of Barack Obama in the New York Times.
GLORIA BORGER: But some say the experience argument was your best argument which the campaign made over and over and over again. So the criticism you hear -- not just from democrats but from Republicans -- is that you've essentially given up your best argument.
GIULIANI: We have the ticket in the right order. We've got the most experienced candidate on the top. They've got a candidate with, all right, no experience or little experience on the top...
