It may not be possible to get someone completely neutral. The only person who I have never detected a right or left slant is Brian Lamb. I've watched him a lot over the years and the debates commission seems to have blackballed him.
That said, even if Lehrer, Gibson and Schieffer are going to pull the Kerry lever, I think they are like umpires at a World Series game. Their main concern has to be not screwing things up and trying to be fair for historical purposes. Besides, any perceived bias in the wording of a question can easily be overcome by either candidate. They pretty much can answer the question they would like to have been asked.
In the future I hope the Debates Commission continues with the "one" moderator format. It's the only way to make the debates about the candidates and not the questioner. Oh, and they better pick Brian Lamb next time.
When you had the lead that Bush had it is a mistake. Because Bush already has a verbal handicap that is well known and documented (said lovingly and not to put him down). Short of Bush pushing the issue, Karl Rove did not service him well in this regard. Strategic blunder.
Any negative flak Bush could have easily deflected and would have had less likely a contraction of the polls than occurred.
We live in perilous times and soldiers in Iraq and Afghanistan deserve our President's full attention. These asinine and spinned out debates totally occupied our President for the past month or so. So glad they are over with so we can let fine citizens like the Swift Vets and others continue with the great job they were doing...
You are letting them off way too easily. Understanding their own biases is not rocket science, and this is not analogous to different strike zones by different umps. If there are credible claims of bias, then guys of that stature should take them seriously. Have they observed Brian Lamb? Did they observe the second debate? Certain of the questions reflected a perfectly reasonable and widely-held worldview, and I wonder if Lehrer, Gibson, Schieffer considered why each has never, ever, ever, framed a question that way.