On Thursday, October 2, PBS anchor Gwen Ifill will serve as moderator for the first and only vice presidential debate. Ifil is certainly qualified enough.  She is moderator and managing editor of Washington Week and senior correspondent of The NewsHour with Jim Lehrer. She was chief congressional and political correspondent for NBC News, and has been a reporter for The New York Times, The Washington Post, The Baltimore Sun, and Boston Herald American.

Most of us would expect the moderator to be not only qualified and well informed, but also unbiased.  Unfortunately Ifill does not fill that bill.

Ifil is the author of The Breakthrough, Politics and Race in the Age of Obama. Breakthrough is a very complimentary of Barack Obama book that looks at the impact of Obama’s presidential campaign on today’s politics.

She recently penned a fawning cover story on the Obamas for Essence magazine that earned much buzz. The title? “The Obamas: Portrait of an American Family.”

It has been noted in comments on numerous blogs that Ifill’s reaction to Sarah Palin’s speech at the Republican Convention was less than objective.

Whether or not Ifill can be unbiased reallly isn’t based on just conjecture.  Ifil thinks it’s more demanding to run as president than to run a state:

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QpXKBZVuK9I&eur]

If you feel that Ifill should at the very least acknowledge her conflict of interest please call the Commission on Presidential Debats at 202-872-1020.