After several days of Charlie & George lying about ABC's questions and format in probably the most disastrous TV debate in history, an interesting little tidbit came to light yesterday. To distance themselves from the trivia and stupidity of the flag pin issue, they played the question on videotape "raised by a voter in Latrobe, Pennsylvania, a woman by the name of Nash McCabe." They then played the tape of her. It looked like a real issue raised in interviews with Pennsylvanians. But that's not what really happened. McCabe was actually interviewed in the New York Times on April 4. She was quoted in that article saying, "How can I vote for a president who won’t wear a flag pin?" and "I watch him on TV. I keep looking for that lapel pin." ABC provided no follow up about whether she could vote for McCain or Hillary, since they don't wear flag pins, either:

Where are those flag pins?

Josh Marshall said about the issue, " Presumably, a researcher for ABC or Gibson saw the piece in the Times, figured, hey, this lady hates Obama and is seriously ginned up about the lapel issue. Let's send a camera crew and film her slamming Obama to his face. It'll be great in the debate."

Will Bunch describes the reality perfectly when he says, "So Nash McCabe wasn't located at random at all. Instead, someone at ABC News decided that they wanted to go after Obama on the patriotism issue, and they actively sought a Pennsylvanian who they knew wanted to bring it up. I assume they thought it would sound better if "a typical voter" asked the question instead of Charlie Gibson. 'You see, we're only raising the issue the voters really care about,' they can claim."

So...ABC, owned by Disney, who benefits from Republican policies, decides to make the leading Democratic contender look bad. They get their two most prominent talking heads to "moderate" the debate to lend credibility, even though one of them owes everything he has to the Clintons. They then go after Obama with a few token challenges to Hillary, using planted questions from the right and a bitter woman in Pennsylvania to do their dirty work.

Oh, did I say bitter? Here's one more little tidbit about Nash McCabe. Her husband was injured in a coal mining accident 25 years ago and can't work. Nash has been the bread winner all these years. This part of Pennsylvania is known for coal mining and formerly a steel center. That went away years ago. Latrobe is also known as the home of Rolling Rock beer until bought by Anheuser Busch. Brewing was moved to Newark in 2006. An independent brewer took over, employing much fewer people at lower wages. How do the people there feel about it?

They're bitter. Sound familiar?