Famously tough but fair questioner: Abrenuntiatis farrakhanae? [Do you renounce Farrakhan?]

Liberal black officeseeker: Abrenuntio.

That only works if we then cut to a montage of Obama's minions whacking Moe Green.

That's a powerful list of shunning-type moves.

You know what would be awesome? If after doing all that other shunning, Obama's final shun would be the brush-off.

Obama brushing off Farrakhan would totally rock.

Tim Russert could easily rock a red cape and suit with a lil red yarmulke, maybe some red shoes to match.
It was a grand inquisition.

And all his pumps?

Farrakhan wears high heels, doesn't he?

To me Russert's schtick had more of a '50s House Unamerican Activities Committee feel to it, as in: "Are you now or have you ever been a card carrying member of the Negro race? If not, why do you associate with Negros and why do they support you?"

I guess GE knew what it was doing when it installed Russert in NBC's Washington bureau.

Y'mean, Louis Farrakhan is still alive...?

Dear Mister Answer Man -- As usual, your latte-swilling, ivory tower, never-met-a-payroll liberal bias is showing. Answer me this question -- and I'm asking it because I know you can't. WHY didn't Tim Russert ask Obama to SWEAR ON HIS AMERICAN FLAG LAPEL PIN that he hated Farrakhan with a force greater than a thousand suns? That was the dog that didn't bark.

So I guess what I'm saying it, "Why did Russert give Obama a pass on Farrakhan? WHEN, oh WHEN are we going to get to the BOTTOM of Lapel-PinGate?" America demands an answer...and also demands that that answer be given 24/7 cable news coverage.

If we're goin' all Roman, let's hope the legions of Obama supporters outflank her hordes in Ohio and drive them to the River. But we don't want to hear their lamentations, we want their votes in the fall. The Romans weren't really big on forgiving (see Carthage). Maybe the Romans aren't the best analogy after all.

Save the Republic!

Having a post just below a cockroach is really the pits! Gregor, I woke up with a cockroach on top of me!!!

Its not an issue debate between the candidates; Russert, Williams, Blitzer etc. make it a debate between the candidates and the moderators and their love of irrelevancy. That was made obvious by the opening question by Williams to Hillary concerning the Obama picture.

Coincidentally, as Hillary mentioned later, I noticed the first question going to her and I said to my wife; "They're going to go after her."

Russert offered a hypothetical on the candidate's positions on Iraq, 'If the soverign state of Iraq said stay in force or leave, what would you do?'
They answered.

Then he offered another hypothetical, conjuring up a worst case scenario; 'well suppose al Qaeda moves and takes over in will you invade again?'

I wondered to myself, how many hypotheticals will he offer before he gets off this track?

Russert, who looks like a blowfish, should get leprosy and retire to a colony.

By the way, I'm not happy with either candidate.

Although you are right, perhaps, to stick to the compact and efficient Western liturgy in matters involving expensive air time, there is a clincher that used to be part of Roman practice (and is still observed in the East) that I think you might want to include. It involves the candidate's facing west (where, of course, Satan dwells) and spitting after each of three renunciations of him.

Hey, that wouldn't happen to be Ms. DEBBIE Schussel, who works out of Detroit, who's work the American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee once flagged as hate-speech, and all-around anti-islamist?

Mr. Russert's line of questioning, while not going nearly far enough, did at least begin the long and important task of "peeling the bark off" Barack Hussein Obama. However, much work remains.

To wit:

Barack Hussein Obama is a black man.

Barack Hussein Obama plays basketball.

Former New York Knickerbockers, Allan Houston and Charlie Ward, are black men who (coincidentally?) play basketball.

In 2001, Charlie Ward stated that, "Jews are stubborn... Why did they persecute Jesus unless he knew something they didn't want to accept? They had his blood on their hands."

Allan Houston expounded on Ward's comment by quoting from the Bible, "Then they spit in Jesus' face and hit him with their fists."

In response to both, the ADL said, "We were shocked to read the comments of New York Knicks players Charlie Ward and Allan Houston blaming the death of Jesus on Jews and accusing Jews of persecuting Christians. We had thought these destructive historic myths, which have been a source of anti-Semitism for centuries, were a thing of the past."

What does Barack Hussein Obama do to assure Jewish Americans that he is consistent with issues regarding Israel and does not in any way suggest that Allan Houston and Charlie Ward epitomize greatness, on or off the basketball court?

I'm disppointed that Russert never asked Clinton if Roger Clemens were to endorse her, how she'd respond. I mean, his treatment of Batter-Americans has clearly demonstrated he's anti-homer and may even be anti-marge.

I'm just glad TPM spent so much time going after that story on McCain because it was only based on the independent, corroborating accounts of two of McCain's aides but no documentary evidence.

Here, we DO have documentation in the form of chain e-mails, so I don't expect Howie Kurtz to be devoting a show to it any time soon.

I was really hoping someone was going to bring up the spitting toward the West! Bravo to you, sir!

And I am sure the next question ab McCainitus will be: Abrenuntiatis Bushnuts?

It looks like voters would be more interested in Obama assuring us he doesn’t believe that we are in The End Times.

All of this ignores the fact that it does not matter a whit what Mr. or Ms. Answer Man think, or D. Schlussel, or any of us for that matter; what matters is--What did Big Russ think? What ritual denunciations will satisfy his abiding interest in making sure that Democrats on the national stage prove that they are sufficiently domesticated? Big Russ, in his depth, worries about things like this for us all the time. Timmeh is merely his prolocutor. Sadly we cannot receive the wise insights of Big Russ directly lest they overwhelm the weak vessels that we inhabit on this mortal coil.

Tune in next week for another episode of "What Obama really meant" when Answer Man again makes another sales pitch, er, comment in his favor.

Plagiarist!

TPM commentary you can Xerox writ large!!!

At a town hall meeting a Conservative talk show host named Cunningham delivered a scathing attack on Obama. John McCain said 'I absolutely repudiate the words of Mister Cuningham.'

Russert; "But Senator McCain, do you REJECT them, will you tell us right now that you reject Cunningham's words?'

On the off chance that Reverend Farrakhan should happen to read this comment and approve of it, I would like to take this opportunity to state in advance that I wholeheartedly reject his endorsement and hereby pledge in the future to limit my posts to comments unlikely to meet his approval. Should I slip up and say something he agrees with, I hereby retract it, effective immediately.

This policy shall be terminated statim if I hear that he agrees with it.