"HOwever, in "debates 2000", Al Gore kept going over the time limit, over and over again. No doubts Kerry will too, in order to allow himself an opportunity to explain his current vacillation, and then the next one."
True, but the MSM is on alert now. They know that the Pajama brigade of bloggers is going to be on the alert for favoritism by the Moderators.
Maybe it won't help maybe it will, but I believe that every organization involved in putting together questions will be reviewing them very carefully so that they don't get Rather-ized the day after the debate.
I agree with you in re MSM possibly being cautious; but there's no accounting for stacking the audience, IMHO. Personally, I find these townhall debates, um, icky. I prefer the more formal debate styles and techniques.