Lehrer on Defensive Over Biased Questioning

NewsMax ^ | Oct. 1, 2004 | Carl Limbacher and NewsMax.com Staff

[kddid]

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.

[areafiftyone]

I swear Kerry got those questions beforehand. I Just have this gut feeling. I said it last night and I say it this morning.

[snooker]

LEHRER: All right, new question. Two minutes, Senator Kerry.

Speaking of Vietnam, you spoke to Congress in 1971, after you came back from Vietnam, and you said, quote, "How do you ask a man to be the last man to die for a mistake?"

Are Americans now dying in Iraq for a mistake?

KERRY: No, and they don't have to, providing we have the leadership that we put -- that I'm offering.

I believe that we have to win this. The president and I have always agreed on that. And from the beginning, I did vote to give the authority, because I thought Saddam Hussein was a threat, and I did accept that intelligence.

But I also laid out a very strict series of things we needed to do in order to proceed from a position of strength. Then the president, in fact, promised them. He went to Cincinnati and he gave a speech in which he said, "We will plan carefully. We will proceed cautiously. We will not make war inevitable. We will go with our allies."

He didn't do any of those things. They didn't do the planning. They left the planning of the State Department in the State Department desks. They avoided even the advice of their own general. General Shinsheki, the Army chief of staff, said you're going to need several hundred thousand troops. Instead of listening to him, they retired him.

The terrorism czar, who has worked for every president since Ronald Reagan, said, "Invading Iraq in response to 9/11 would be like Franklin Roosevelt invading Mexico in response to Pearl Harbor."

That's what we have here.

And what we need now is a president who understands how to bring these other countries together to recognize their stakes in this. They do have stakes in it. They've always had stakes in it.

The Arab countries have a stake in not having a civil war. The European countries have a stake in not having total disorder on their doorstep.

But this president hasn't even held the kind of statesman-like summits that pull people together and get them to invest in those states. In fact, he's done the opposite. He pushed them away.

When the Secretary General Kofi Annan offered the United Nations, he said, "No, no, we'll go do this alone."

To save for Halliburton the spoils of the war, they actually issued a memorandum from the Defense Department saying, "If you weren't with us in the war, don't bother applying for any construction."

That's not a way to invite people.

That's his whole answer. He basically didn't answer the question. The answer he gave made no sense. No surprise there is it.

Here is the transcript ... http://www.foxnews.com/printer_friendly_story/0,3566,134152,00.html

[snooker]

You think Kerry knew where the questions were going? Here is a quote from his very first answer. We report, you decide.

All of these, and especially homeland security, which we'll talk about a little bit later.

[Labyrinthos]

Pardon my unladylike language, but this is exactly how it was. I also think that Kerry had the questions before hand, since his answers seemed to seque quite nicely into the next question.

Leher's questions were biased. I wouldn't be shocked if Kerry had the actual questions in advance, although I suspect that both sides had a pretty good idea of the subject matter of the questions. So what. Life is not fair. Life is not supposed to be fair. If GWB was a good debator, then he should have been able to exploit the situation despite the bias. None of the questions were really difficult and all the questions should have been anticipated by both sides, even without advance warning. So please, everyone, stop the whining and crying and the excuse making, because we're starting to sound like the RATs. BTW, I'm not concerned about GWB's yeoman performance, because if I recall correctly, he didn't do all the well in the first debate against Ghore in 2000, but by just about every account he kicked ass in the last debates.

[Just mythoughts]

"Pardon my unladylike language, but this is exactly how it was. I also think that Kerry had the questions before hand, since his answers seemed to seque quite nicely into the next question."

lol, I personally am very proud that President Bush showed his leadership by not jumping into the quagmire of lies, that JFKerry spewed.

Seemed the plan by JFKerry was to tell as many lies as possible, trying to provoke President Bush to respond with an out of character response. Such as Senator Kerry you are a lying S.O.B., next question.

[The Duke]

I also think that Kerry had the questions before hand, ...

Surely you don't think a media that would (to borrow Henry Kissenger's favorite word) promulgate forged documents in an attempt to influence a presidential election would stoop so low as to share the questions beforehand with his adversary(?) </sarcasm>

[Even Keel]

I think that would be a great idea. Sure would shake up the Libs.

I also do not think Kerry had the questions before hand. He didn't need them because as someone has pointed out all the questions were tailored to him so he could have answered them in his sleep.

[StarFan]

Did he also shake the President's hand? I caught the tail end last night as I watched Bush watch Kerry & Lehrer so if there was a wink, GWB saw it as well.

[Joe_October]

Mr. Kerry - Why are you so great and wonderful?
Sad Sack Bush - Why are you such a miserable failure?

(no bias there)

I listened to about 15 minutes of it. It was a boring waste of time. Same old lies from Kerry.

Bush was cautious because the ID MSM would distort anything he said.

I kick myself when I got home and didn't switch on to the football game.

[OldSgt.]

"Anyone recall how Kerry answered this? This is a pretty tough question?"

He didn't directly answer the question. Seams he slid it off as Bush screwed up but He'd fix it.

PBS, I'd been surprised if Lehrer didn't bias it for sKerry. Hey, wasn't it not suppose to show the other player as one answered a question, BUT they did!! Skerry looked like he knew it was going to happen also and all most always looked down writing something or gave purposeful visual reactions, Bush looked like he thought he wasn't on screen!

[I'm ALL Right!]

CNN had some cartoon artist on last night who was about 25 and he was beyond arrogant. He said, "Nobody is talking about the Elephant in the room....Bush is just stupid." He repeated this in various other ways for about 3 minutes while the host of the show sat and smiled. (Once, the host asked, "Don't you think that's a bit arrogant of you?" The guy said no, not arrogance, just the truth.) He went on and on.

Impressive commentary from a man who's life achievements are:

1. Being a cartoon artist.

[Kirkwood]

Kerry broke the rules and got extra time to speak outside of the usual 30 second discussion period. This happened at least twice when Lehrer wanted to clarify their key points and Kerry just started all over again in detail outside of the clock. Bush maybe should have asked for equal time, but I think he chose not to because it would look too defensive.

[misterrob]

I disagree. He laid out a host of things that he feels the administration screwed up on and listed them out. Bush had the ability to counter him and did. Did we really need to give Saddam an opportunity to keep thumbing his nose at the world? What does it say to the 30 allies that we have in this conflict when Mr. Kerry denigrates their service? My commanders have the flexibility to do what they need to do? What he missed out on was telling Kerry that it made no sense to offer reconstruction projects to countries who had undercut our efforts to succeed through their repeated violation of UN sacnctions, exploiting the Iraqi people in oil scams, who'd sold Saddam weapons in the months leading up to the war and didn't have the fortitude to do what they say and say what they mean.

[OldSgt.]

"Some folks will wonder why it is best to go it alone in North Korea, but everywhere else requites a coalition.

Eventually someone will ask how the U.N. can be trusted after stealing kid's milk money.

Eventually someone will ask how the French and Russians can be motivated, since Kerry himself said they were too entangled in self interest.

Kerry fancies himself as a great military tactician, better than the generals on the ground. He could fight Tora Bora and Falujia better than the guys wok did it. This will be fun to watch. The last American presidents who diddled in tactics were LBJ and Carter."

BUT WILL THE MSM PLAY THIS AS A DISTICTION OF sKERRY, I DOUT IT!

[Kirkwood]

I forgot Kerry's answers soon after he said them. I really can't recall anything specific. At least I know exactly where Bush stands on things and where we are going with Bush in the next 4 years.

[snooker]

The problem is the question was ...

"Are Americans now dying in Iraq for a mistake? "

How does Halliburton figure in the answer?

The rest of his answer was just a bunch of platitudinous rambling. I will do better because I am John Kerry doesn't cut it with me. What happened to the threat. Did it just disappear because John Kerry says so? Just like BJ Clinton said. Didn't JF'nKerry say virtually the same thing about Iraq that everyone else did? Why yes he did. I wasn't born the night of the debate.

[griswold3]

i was as mad as GWB. The whole thing is a setup. I wanted to punch Kerry and Lehrer in the nose. There were no questions to invoke the vision of GWB only attack questions. i thought Bush got him on the Coalition of the Bribed and coerced" and the Allawi issue, the North Korean issue- (Kerry wants to bribe them) and the Iranian nuclear issue-(test their trustworthiness). Get Weld on the phone, this is Kerry's irratic style.

[goodnesswins]

HEY.....THAT'S a picture of the OLD MEDIA....i.e. MSM.....better keep it for historical purposes.....heh...heh...heh.

[dubyain04jebin08and12]

>>> I was on the phone with my sister when Bush was asked if he thought all the American lives lost in Iraq were worth it. We both gasped.

Yeah that was a bad question but then again he asked Kerry if they were dying for a mistake. Bush showed compassion in his answer and Kerry answered horribly, at least.

[Samwise]

Was that just you on the radio?