Hasselback finally gets to speak to a non-hostile crowd

October 26, 2008
Tampa, Florida

Elisabeth Hasselback got to speak without being personally attacked...for once. She is verbally assaulted every single day at her place of employment, not only by her co-hosts, the audience and production crew, but also by the show's creator and once well-respected journalist. And worse, to prove the utter classlessness of barry supporters, some of the guests snub her without having the 'decency' to make it look accidental. All the while Barbara Walters does nothing to stop it. The ones who snub Elisabeth are people who think that barry VOTED AGAINST Iraq or at least had a say. HE DIDN'T. And what he claims he said (there are no recordings of any sort) was, in typical obamanating fashion, not followed by action action.

Why do people think that is suddenly going to change at 12:01 on January 21, 2009? As Dr Phil is wont to say: the best predictor of future behavior is past behavior. barry's past behavior reveals not one instance where has he stood up and made an independent critical decision with consequences. If anyone can give me an example, please enlighten me, and I will retract my statements. I am not worried this will happen - it's an impossibility.

Hannity, FOX TV and Howard Stern interviewed people on the street and asked if they could describe anything barry had done. All they could come up with was CHANGE! And Stern's interviewees were asked if they were ok with barry's choice of Sarah Palin for VP. The answer? Yes.

What is the definition of work place harassment? Does it not include what the Viewbots are doing everyday to Elisabeth? They dismiss her, make her feel less than and stupid (aka blonde), call her names, sigh and make faces, vehemently challenge her personal views and ridicule barry's opponent, John McCain, and their fellow working mother, Governor Palin.

Who in the hell is Barbara Walters anymore? Where has the hard-hitting, objective journalist gone? She's an embarrassment to women everywhere. Her "entertainment" show has been reduced to cattiness and one-sided piling-on attacks on the youngest member of the group. (Hasselback 31, Shepherd 41, Goldberg 52, Behar 66, Walters 79)

Elisabeth has ONE vote. Is it worth destroying her - in public for all the entire world to see - for one vote? Just like the bots did to Joe the Plumber. I'm embarrassed watching these women. They're a pack of nasty-mouthed cougars circling the youngest member of the herd waiting to completely tear her apart. They've already sunk their teeth into her neck.

Forget Elisabeth's politics for a moment. Which member of the group has the courage to stand up for her beliefs without belittling her fellow cohosts? Where is Walters' integrity as the producer/originator of the show? As the senior member of the group and someone who understands the technique and personal restraint of interviewing and cohosting, she should understand what she is doing. She should be objective enough to see that the aggressiveness, which she is sanctioning, is reflecting poorly on her and her fellow jackals.

It must be, as Joy pointed out to O'Reilly, because the show has been getting a lot of press. Why bother with respect and kindness when their lack leads to increased fame, ratings and money.

Why doesn't Barbara care that one of her employees endures daily harassment by her coworkers? Coworkers who are supposedly her equals? Can you imagine this happening in another workplace?

It seems this went the way of a rant. Anyway. Elisabeth sounded off on the diversion from Biden's monumentally stupid (but honest and something he said during the debate) comment by discussing Palin's wardrobe.

HASSELBACK: "Instead of the issues, THEY are focused, fixated, on her wardrobe. Now with everything going on in the world it seems a little but odd. Let me tell you, this is deliberately sexist..I have a hard time not being sassy...I'm actually, personally, most impressed by her accessories - like the flag pin she wears in honor of her son and our military men and women fighting abroad. And they fight for our very right to be here today in her support. Now, they didn't list that accessory and it's value in their reports, did they? You know why? Because they know it's priceless!"

Palin initially said it was ridiculous but then launched into an explanation. I wonder if there is some truth to the democratic driven "I've heard from a person close to the campaign" story of Palin going rogue. She's a maverick, a hunter from a wilderness state and a beautiful woman who is being attacked about her appearance. What in the hell else would you expect?

PALIN: "Those clothes, they are not my property. Just like the lighting and the staging and everything else that the RNC purchased, I'm not taking them with me."

Then she mentioned her clothes from a consignment shop in Alaska, earrings from her Yupik Eskimo mother-in-law, her $35 wedding ring (that she bought herself) and her blue star mom pin she wears "in honor of my son who is fighting over in Iraq right now defending all of you."

And the final zinger: "Barack Obama and I, we both have spent quite some time on the basketball court, but where I come from, you have to win the game before you start cutting down the nets."

Read here for her running mate's comments on barry's premature inauguration speech.