Absurd questions anger Biden in Orlando

I've heard and written about probably hundreds of interviews of all of the presidential candidates since the primaries began nearly two years ago, but the one in the video above has got to be one of the more outrageous ones I've heard during this election cycle. During an interview with WFTV Channel 9's Barbara West in Orlando, Florida, Biden did a pretty good job of keeping his cool - better than I could have.

Biden fielded a litany of absurd questions ranging from the Obama campaign's alleged influence over ACORN (including an inquiry asking if Biden was "embarrassed" by his campaign's alleged association with the group); whether Obama is a "socialist"; and then West wondered about Sen. Barack Obama's comment, to Joe the Plumber, about spreading the wealth. She quoted Karl Marx and asked how Obama isn't being a Marxist with his "spreading the wealth" comment. Following those queries, a clearly frustrated Biden asked, "I don't know who's writing your questions."

To be clear, I have absolutely no problem with tough questions being asked of any of the four candidates - too often, they all attempt to set up interviews with fluff, feel-good questions that inform voters of nothing. Some terrific examples of just this are Sarah Palin's interviews with Katie Couric & Charlie Gibson, which she bombed anyway. Biden answered more tough questions during the five-minute interview in the video above than Palin has since she joined the ticket.

Following the interview, the Obama campaign canceled a Jill Biden interview for the following day. Of course, the right-wingnuts decried this "censorship" of the media, but doesn't even hold up for a nanosecond.

A few weeks ago, McCain kicked New York Times columnist Maureen Dowd off his campaign plane for questions he didn't like, and there are numerous other occasions of media censorship during the Bush years justified by media treatment it wasn't thrilled with. Anyone remember Bush saying to Dick Cheney during the '00 campaign, "There's Adam Clymer, major league asshole from the New York Times"? Or how about Jeff Gannon, the conservative plant from Talon News, who Bush called on in 2005 during a press conference when the questions got tough? (He wasn't even smart enough to be low key, asking Bush a question that included a comment that the Democrats are "divorced from reality") Or how about the Bush administration signing conservative pundits to lucrative contracts using TAXPAYER MONEY to push its agenda in 2005? (Are you listening, Armstrong Williams?)

Getting back to the interview with Biden, for those of you who think that Channel 9's Barbara West is some impartial, tough journalist, watch how she handled an interview with John McCain on Oct. 14. I heard more softballs tossed at McCain during that tongue bath than I've heard tossed at Obama in the last six months.

Pretty hilarious that the very same media that McCain more than once has called "his base" is now the mortal enemy, totally in the tank for Obama.

Riiight.