Odd Interview

When former Miss America contestant Barbara West, anchorwoman at WFTV television in Orlando, Florida, interviewed Democratic vice-presidential candidate Joe Biden on October 23, 2008, she asked the following provocative, controversial, and obviously biased questions:

• I know you’re in North Carolina now trying to help get out the vote but aren’t you embarassed by the blatant attempts to register phony voters by ACORN, an organization that Barack Obama has been tied to in the past?
• Okay, moving onto the next question. Senator Obama now famously told Joe the Plumber he wanted to spread his wealth around. A Gallup polls showed 84% of Americans prefer government focus on improving financial conditions and creating more jobs in the U.S. as opposed to taking steps to distribute wealth. Isn’t Senator Obama’s statement a potentially crushing political blunder?
• 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 Senator Obama not being a Marxist if he intends to spread the wealth around?
• Now you recently said “Mark my words. It'll not be six months before the world tests Barack Obama.” But what worries many people is your caveat asking them to stand with him because it's not going to be apparent initially that he's right. Are you forewarning Americans that nothing will get done and that America’s days as a world’s leading power are over?
• Getting back to the spreading the wealth question. What do you say to the people who are concerned that Barak Obama will want to turn American into a socialist country much like Sweden.

These aren't questions, but statements. There are ways to probe the phony issues of ACORN, wealth redistribution, Karl Marx, the status of the U.S.A. as a superpower, socialism, and those awful Europeans! without adopting Repub talking points. But that would have been unlikely. The website bluetidalwave.com contends of West's husband, Wade West (in what I've been able neither to confirm nor refute):

West's media communication and fundraising skills have made him a popular consultant for Republican political candidates ranging from local elections, to more than 85 members of Congress and members of the President’s cabinet.Both Barbara and Wade West have frequently emceed Republican fundraisers in the local Central Florida community for at least a decade.Wade West is also a Republican donor. West donated $250 to the NATIONAL REPUBLICAN CONGRESSIONAL COMMITTEE. He gave $500 to Will McBride a Republican candidate for U.S. Senate in Florida. As well as $500 to John Mica and $1,000 to Richard Keller both GOP congressional candidates in Florida.

And when Barbara West interviewed John McCain on October 14, 2008, she asked him this piercing question:

In dozens of states, the group ACORN is accused of filing thousands of bogus voter registrations in central Florida. They even tried to register a Mickey Mouse. And one person here in Orange County was registered twenty-one times. Now Senator Obama served ACORN and its associations as an attorney on voter registration and on cases involving sub-prime mortgages, which led to our current financial crisis. Why haven't you tried to go after him on these serious issues of voter registration fraud and the mortgage crisis?

Barack Obama in cahoots with ACORN. ACORN happily filing fraudulent voter registration cards. Mortgage crisis not caused by deregulation of financial institutions, but by big-city community organizations. Even that specter of someone coming in to vote, claiming he's "Mickey Mouse," and being allowed to vote. The familiar GOP talking points. Barbara West: not much of a journalist, but probably a future Fox News host.