Sherri Shepherd and Joy Behar agree: Whoopi Goldberg’s "do I have to worry about becoming a slave" question to John McCain was "good." Whoopi, for her part, does not think the question was "tough." On the October 20 edition of "The View," in calling for Sarah Palin and Barack Obama to appear, the discussion evolved into a recap of McCain’s recent appearance.
Whoopi Goldberg denied that they were tough on Senator McCain, but the rest of the panel disagreed. Sherri Shepherd praised Whoopi’s question of a return to slavery after McCain called for a stricter interpretation of the Constitution on behalf of his judicial appointments. Sherri Shepherd, who has demonstrated ignorance on history and geography, seemed to forget that the 13th Amendment to the Constitution forbids slavery, not a product of an activist court. Joy Behar agreed "it was good." [audio clip available here]
Earlier in the segment, upon discussing Sarah Palin’s recent"Saturday Night Live" appearance, Joy Behar blasted the Alaska governor for not appearing on "Meet the Press" or "The View." Behar suggested that Sarah Palin just reads the teleprompter and not appearing on "The View" where she would "actually have to put a sentence together." Joy Behar missed that Palin has been off script in interviews with Rush Limbaugh and Sean Hannity. One may counter "that’s just a softball interview." Perhaps, but no softer than a Matt Lauer interview with Barack Obama.
Alongside her criticisms of Sarah Palin’s no show, Behar admitted to not holding Barack Obama accountable for his absence from "The View." Senator Obama did appear on "The View" in the spring, but has thus far declined to appear since winning the nomination. Elisabeth Hasselbeck scolded Behar’s double standard crying "do not give Barack Obama a pass in terms of coming on this show and give Sarah Palin an ultimatum in terms of coming on here."
The transcript follows.
JOY BEHAR: She tripped all over herself to be on "Saturday Night Live," made her trip to New York. Meanwhile she should be on "Meet the Press." She avoids that like the plague. [applause] But to do a little prompter reading "oh yeah, I’ll do that."
SHERRI SHEPHERD: Or come on "The View."
BEHAR: Or come on "The View" and talk where you actually have to put a sentence together.
WHOOPI GOLDBERG: If we’re talking about folks coming on "The View," Barack, hello! Okay. Barack and Sarah-
ELISABETH HASSELBECK: Not since he’s been the nominee. He has not come here.
BEHAR: He’s talked and he has no reason to come here.
GOLDBERG: I just, I just thought since we were doing- well, yeah. actually they all have a good reason to come here. There are lots of people who watch this show. I know people like to say "well it doesn’t mean anything." People do actually get a lot of information from us and it would not be a bad thing for Barack to come on and allow us to ask a couple of questions and to have some fun with him as we did, as we did with John McCain. Now John McCain wasn’t as happy about it his second try. He wasn’t as happy about it- no, no, no. I’m sorry, what?
HASSELBECK: He came on but it was, it was a tough day for him there because-
GOLDBERG: Not cause of us. We weren’t- we weren’t tough on him. We had as much fun with him as we had the first time with him.
BARBARA WALTERS: We were tough on him.
HASSELBECK: We were tough on him that day.
GOLDBERG: Really, we were tough on him?
WALTERS: Yes we were.
BEHAR: So what?
GOLDBERG: How, how?
HASSELBECK: It’s fine. I’m not saying it’s tough.
BEHAR: If he can’t deal with me, how is he going to deal with Vladimir Putin?
[applause]
HASSELBECK: But he did. He did. Here’s the difference. Here’s the difference.
GOLDBERG: You were tough on him?
BEHAR: I asked him a very- I asked him a very straight question. But I- and he answered it. That was it.
SHEPHERD: And you asked him a straight question too about the amendments, Whoopi, you know when you said- when he said "we got to go back to the original Constitution," you said "well does that mean we’re going to be slaves again?" I thought that was very-
BEHAR: It was good.
GOLDBERG: I don’t think that was tough.
HASSELBECK: Barack Obama has yet to come and do the same.
WALTERS: If you watch the whole program, I, I think-
BEHAR: I was there.
[laughter]
WALTERS: Let me just tell you because I don’t just do the program every day.
GOLDBERG: Right.
WALTERS: It is very different when you sit on the desk and when you are home and you watch it.
GOLDBERG: Well, I know Barbara. I’m trying to be light.
WALTERS: There is a different feeling about it.
BEHAR: So what, what were you trying to say? I’m not following.
WALTERS: Well, what I was trying to say is that I think that he came on the program perhaps thinking that it was going to be kind of light and fun and so on. And we asked him very tough questions including saying to his face, which one does not normally do, "you’re a liar." And I do thi-
BEHAR: Well, no, that the ads were lies is what I said. Not you’re a liar. I said the ads were lies.
HASSELBECK: And he was able to tell us that he was not.
WALTERS: All I’m saying-
SHEPHERD: He thought he was going to be doing Joy’s Comedy Corner.
[laughter]
WALTERS: I don’t think that this is something we should not do. We are intelligent women and we asked questions. However-
HASSELBECK: But he came.
WALTERS: He came and I give him credit for that and I hope he will come on again and as you say, you know, if you don’t take the heat, you can’t be president.
BEHAR: That’s right. Same with Obama.
WALTERS: That does not mean that we were not tough.
GOLDBERG: That’s why I was bringing that up.
BEHAR: It’s different to say that Obama should come on the show, so that he should take some tough questions and Palin should- Palin is more important because we have not heard the woman speak spontaneously since Katie Couric’s interview. We don’t know if the woman can-
HASSELBECK: She’s been going all over America talking spontaneously.
BEHAR: No she reads a prompter.
HASSELBECK: Don’t tell- don’t give- do not give Barack Obama a pass in terms of coming on this show and give Sarah Palin an ultimatum in terms of coming on here.
[applause]
BEHAR: It’s not my point. I’m not giving him a pass.
