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PBS announces Jim Lehrer died this morning at age 85.

In August, I blasted the Commission on Presidential Debate’s choices of three Beltway lib journo-tools — CNN’s Candy Crowley, PBS’s Jim Lehrer and CBS’s Bob Schieffer. So far, they’ve acted just as expected and predicted. As I noted: While the debate panel trumpeted the gender diversity of its picks, the chromosomal diversity is far outweighed by the political uniformity, class conformity and geographical homogeneity of the group. ... The presidential debates are the last bastion of “mainstream” media self-delusion in the 21st century. They are a ritual laughingstock for tens of millions of American viewers who have put up with...

PBS CEO Paula Kerger refused to defend PBS host Jim Lehrer’s debate performance, even failing to push back against the idea that Lehrer is too old and too white for the job. “It was a very complicated debate structure, and you saw that I think in the debate last night,” Kerger said yesterday on CNN when asked to evaluate Lehrer. CNN’s Carol Costello then asked whether Lehrer should have had the job in the first place. “There was criticism when Jim Lehrer was initially named to be a moderator. People said: ‘oh, another white guy; he’s too old to be...

Romney's stated policies in business during the first presidential debate: champion the growth and development for the middle class. Until now, Romney's position was widely perceived as one of the biggest enemies to the middle class. One of his most powerful moments during the debate was the contrast he illustrated between the president’s decision to finance the five big banks, while allowing small banks to fail across America. Some credit should be given to the president, however, for his short-term policies to save the banks, and the wise business decision to make interest from the banks that were save through...

Even more delightful than the Wednesday night whoopin Mitt Romney put on Barack Obama was the pain expressed by left-wing media and other pundits clearly in shock at what was universally looked upon as the president’s disastrous performance. National Journal Editor-in-Chief Ron Fournier passed off the destruction of the Golden Boy as “the curse of incumbency.” “Like many of his predecessors,” writes the longtime AP reporter, “President Obama fell victim Wednesday night to high expectations, a short fuse, and a hungry challenger.” (1) “I don’t know what he was doing out there. He had his head down, he was enduring...

PBS anchor Jim Lehrer is a progressive who, as the dean of Presidential Debate moderators, shows open disdain for Republicans and speaks glowingly of Democrats. Amidst all the pre-spin build up to the first presidential debate between President Barack Obama and Governor Mitt Romney, Lehrer is being overlooked as a key player in tonight's made-for-TV reality show. Make no mistake, the PBS journalist will be just as important to the proceedings as the height of the podiums and the color of the neckties. Despite the laughable expectations game put forth by the mainstream media that has somehow positioned Mitt Romney...

The ambush schedule of presidential and vice presidential debates has been announced with moderator names: PBS' Jim Leher on October 3rd in Denver; CNN's Candy Crowley in Hempstead, New York; CBS' Bob Schieffer October 22nd in Boca Raton, Florida and ABC's Martha Raddatz meets the Veeps on October 22th in Danville, Kentucky. Sounds like another ambush in the making. Ryan will decimate Biden. By the way, in Chicago, Obama's hometown, The Won speaks at a fundraiser for "younger supporters" and the room is half empty. Here's some scoop: Photo: Mitt Romney - Paul Ryan Jim Lehrer (more on the Bush-Kerry...

From PBS.org, July 20, 2009... "Communicating health reform goals" JIM LEHRER: As you know a lot of the commentary over the weekend was that nothing’s going to happen getting from here to the final hurdle here unless you really start cracking some heads, and really say, “Hey, this is the Obama plan, this is what I want. So much for what this committee wants and what that committee wants. Here’s what I want. I’m going to push and go.” Are you ready to do that? PRESIDENT OBAMA: You know, the interesting thing is we’ve actually been very clear on what...

Someone tell Jim Lehrer the election is over he can stop being a shill for the Democratic Party. Either that or he has totally gone off the deep end. On Friday's Newshour he went on the defensive for Illinois Governor Blagojevich wondering "What's the big deal here?" he goes on to say that he just went a little over the line, and that what Blago was doing was the normal was of doing business.

NEWSMAKER: DONALD RUMSFELD December 8, 2005 JIM LEHRER: And now to our Newsmaker interview with Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld. Mr. Secretary, welcome. DONALD RUMSFELD: Thank you very much. JIM LEHRER: First, on some of the news items of today, there was a claim today that kidnappers had killed an American contractor in Iraq. Can you confirm that? DONALD RUMSFELD: I can't. We have claims by kidnappers and terrorists and beheaders, three or four a day, and it takes - anyone can say anything they want, and it gets carried across the globe in about five minutes. But till you...

PBS host Jim Lehrer was challenged Friday morning on claims that he went easy on Sen. John Kerry during Thursday night's presidential debate, while tossing verbal hand grenades in President Bush's direction designed to keep him on the defensive. PBS host Jim Lehrer was challenged Friday morning on claims that he went easy on Sen. John Kerry during Thursday night's presidential debate, while tossing verbal hand grenades in President Bush's direction designed to keep him on the defensive. "I don't know what in the world you're talking about," Lehrer told radio host Don Imus, in his only post-debate interview. "I...

PBS host Jim Lehrer was challenged Friday morning on claims that he went easy on Sen. John Kerry during Thursday night's presidential debate, while tossing verbal hand grenades in President Bush's direction designed to keep him on the defensive. "I don't know what in the world you're talking about," Lehrer told radio host Don Imus, in his only post-debate interview.

Presidential debate moderator Jim Lehrer showed once again Thursday night why top aides to President Clinton used to call him "our moderator" when presidential debate time rolled around in 1996. The questions, which Lehrer announced at the outset had been authored exclusively by him, were supposed to help the American people determine which candidate would be a better steward of U.S. national security in a post-9/11 world. snip- Most Americans would consider the answers to those questions extremely relevant to the selection of any U.S. commander-in-chief during a time of war. But not Jim Lehrer. Instead, he focused on Iraq...

Presidential debate moderator Jim Lehrer showed once again Thursday night why top aides to President Clinton used to call him "our moderator" when presidential debate time rolled around in 1996. The questions, which Lehrer announced at the outset had been authored exclusively by him, were supposed to help the American people determine which candidate would be a better steward of U.S. national security in a post-9/11 world. But there were no queries to Sen. Kerry about his long Senate record of voting against defense appropriations; or his sponsorship of a bill to cut CIA funding by 6 billion dollars a...

http://www.crushkerry.com/article-282--0-0.html Debate Tips from Crushkerry.com In the past week, both John Kerry and his octogenarian ideological grandpappy Jimmy Carter have hyped the coming presidential debates. This will be John Kerry’s time to shine, the thinking goes. Put this statuesque intellectualoid on stage with that babbling cowboy and we’re right back in this thing! Um, yes … we’ve heard that story before. Nonetheless it is true George W. Bush is not the best public speaker to hold the high office of President off the United States. (Though he is far more articulate than he is generally given credit for being.) And...

In an exclusive interview, Prime Minister Iyad Allawi discusses the recent hostage situation in Iraq, the media's portrayal of the war-torn nation and the upcoming elections in January. http://www.pbs.org/newshour/bb/middle_east/july-dec04/allawi_9-23.html

JIM LEHRER: President Bush speaking from the White House. Some perspective now on what the president just said from four historians. From Boston University: Robert Dallek who has written extensively on the American presidency and the history of American foreign policy; and Professor Emeritus Howard Zinn, author of A People's History of the United States and The Politics of History, among others. Walter Russell Mead, a senior fellow for U.S. foreign policy at the Council on Foreign Relations; and Diane Kunz, a diplomatic historian, formally at Yale University. She's the author of Butter and Guns: America's Cold War, Economic Diplomacy....