Gotta disagree with you here. I think getting into a yelling match with BOR would have just played into his hands, because he wanted to bash a conservative site so he could seem "fair and balanced" when attacking the Daily Kos. They didn't provide Kristinn with the quotes used beforehand, so he could not research them and challenge him on them. If Kristinn tried to aggressively take on BOR, BOR would have just yelled over him and cut back to his conversation with Ford. It would have just played into the liberal stereotype of conservatives as unreasonable, pounding-the-table types. Much smarter to appear calm and reasonable. The viewing public is not dumb, they see through BOR's tactics whether he realizes it or not.