Quote:
Originally Posted by alnorth
Lehrer was pathetic.
The ONLY reason to like Lehrer is fond memories that Romney kicked Obama's ass while Lehrer rambled on unnoticed, THATS IT. Lehrer was freaking irrelevant as a moderator, liking him is similar to having fond memories of the breakfast you ate that morning as a Romney supporter because Lehrer was utterly irrelevant in the debate.
The only thing Lehrer did, was basically say "ok, on your mark, get set.... go" then nothing. Utterly, completely nothing for 90 full minutes. Lehrer was utterly, pathetically, sadly, WORTHLESS.
Lehrer completely failed as a moderator in that he allowed both candidates to give bland no-detail no-substance speeches that were meant to be everything to everyone. If you were a low-information voter with little interest in politics I guess it might have been interesting, but for anyone who actually pays attention to debates that first debate was a total abortion.
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No, sorry, you're wrong. It has nothing to do with Romney smoking your guy. The reason to like what Lehrer did is that he didn't feel an overwhelming urge to make himself a part of the show. He let both men have their run. That might not have worked if either of the men were trying to bully the other by interrupting (neither really did) or by filibustering (Obama got long-winded a time or two, but he was quick to wrap things up with only slight prompting from Lehrer so again Lehrer didn't need to become too intrusive).
Lehrer's passive technique wouldn't have worked so well tonight because of Biden's aggressive approach, but I doubt that Lehrer would have been as passive if he'd been handling tonight's debate. I thought Raddatz was a little too aggressive in cutting both men off tonight, but she wasn't terrible. I didn't like the dual interview format tonight as much as the more topic oriented back-and-forth of the first POTUS debate either.
BTW, I'd much rather have the candidates force each other to provide substance and specifics than the moderator. If the moderator does it, it inevitably introduces the biases of the moderator no matter how even handed he/she tries to be (much like what fact-checking has become).
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