WEST: You may recognize this famous quote, "from each according to his abilities, to each according to his needs." That's from Karl Marx. How is Sen. Obama not being a Marxist if he intends to spread the wealth around?
BIDEN: Are you joking? Is this a joke? ... Or is that a real question? (LAUGHTER).
This has to be one of the most offensive attempted-but-poorly-executed hatchet jobs I've ever seen. It's as if Ms. West took her questions directly from a hot-off-the-press copy of the McCain campaign's latest talking points. And it's not even like Ms. West made a pretense of her intentions. It was almost immediately clear that she had no intention in asking tough but fair questions- the sort a candidate could and should be able to reasonably expect from a seasoned journalist. No, Ms. West was out for blood...and it seems that she has a brilliant future in front of her at Faux News Channel.
West, whose husband is a Republican strategist, made no attempt to hide her political orientation, and her questions were, to be honest, both highly offensive and terribly inappropriate. It was the sort of thing that one could reasonably expect from Faux News Channel, but from a local television station we should be able to expect better. No candidate should be subjected to the sort of nakedly partisan ambush interview that West subjected Joe Biden to. Biden, to his credit, maintained a surprisingly upbeat sense of humor regarding West's line of questioning, perhaps because he recognized early on what West was attempting to do. Still, he deserved better, and Barbara West has no business calling herself a journalist. Frankly, she doesn't deserve to manage a Dairy Queen.
WE DESERVE BETTER.
