let's get ready to rumble

During tonight's vice presidential debate, this woman will be front and center. An journalist, newscaster and author, Gwen Ifill is one bad sista!

She's been called snippy for her moderation of the 2004 vice presidential debate between Dick Cheney and John Edwards. Tricky Dick Jr. asked for more than the 30 seconds allotted to respond to a comment by Edwards at which point Ms. Ifill told him "Well, that's all you've got." OK-K-K!

Now it wouldn't be America without the racialious undertones that have been surfacing leading up to tonight's debate with Ms. Alaska and Mr. Senator. There has been wide speculation from Republican camps that Ms. Ifill is an improper moderator for the debate since she is writing a yet to be released book about the new generation of black political leaders. The word "obama" in the book's title is all conservatives needed to commence their yapping and whining about the injustice. Awww lawd why must Ms. Alaska endure the questioning of an intelligent Black journalist?

Of course, Ms. Ifill is having none of that. In responding to the murmurs, Ifill says, "No one's ever assumed a white reporter can't cover a white candidate."

Exactly!

Another gem from the House of Ifill: "We're very lazy when we think about race in this country. We try to put it in a box. It's Jesse versus Al, or Jesse and Al versus everyone else....We love simplistic conflict...There's a whole group of people who have Ivy League degrees and immense accomplishments who actually benefited from the things their parents were fighting for."

As the only woman and the only African-American (read: non-old White man) among this year's slate of presidential debate moderators, Ifill has to stand in the gap and ask the hard questions. I have no doubt that she will. Query whether folks will look beyond the racial trope: a Black woman questioning a White woman and listen. I have a feeling tonight's debate is gonna be very interesting.