Posted on 10/04/2012 5:33:52 AM PDT by Haiku Guy
NEW YORK — Jim Lehrer may be regretting his decision to come out of semi-retirement and moderate his 12th presidential debate.
The veteran PBS anchor drew caustic social media reviews for his performance on Wednesday, with critics saying he failed to keep control of the campaign's first direct exchange between President Barack Obama and Republican Mitt Romney. The candidates talked over Lehrer's attempts to keep them to time limitations, and his open-ended questions frequently lacked sharpness.
The tough assessments crossed party lines: Republican commentator Laura Ingraham wrote on Twitter that Lehrer seemed "a bit overwhelmed." Comic and Democratic activist Bill Maher bluntly tweeted that "Lehrer sucked."
(snip)
(Excerpt) Read more at sfgate.com ...
they were upset that Jimmy boy didn’t take up the typical media spot under Obama’s podium... Jimmy expected the debate to be between two adults, not an unprepared agitator and a serious business person.
When Lehrer kept trying to interrupt Romney, it gave him an opportunity to just talk past him. That’s the kind of thing we were looking for, since we know the mods *all* suck.
I imagine Romney was happy to sit back and let Obama keep on diggin' that hole... Romney looked good when he was talking, but he looked even better when Obama was talking...
Mr. Leherer has, I’m sure, been disinvited from all future Beltway cocktail parties.
Get ready to spend the rest of your Saturday nights down at TGI Fridays with Bernard Shaw....
Blaming Lehrer for Obama’s incompetence and bumbling responses is typical of the MSM’s coddling of poor little Obie - bama.
I enjoyed the debate last night. No red and green lights or interruptions by the peanut gallery. Just a good back and forth. Too bad it was a slaughter libs.
Lehrer was perfect and right on top of things.
Lehrer gave a nice long speech before the debate started, which you could’ve seen on cspan. What’s greatis he gave Obama the opportunity to filibuster, and Obama took it much to his detriment.
The debate format didn’t call for buzzers, bells, or hard time cut offs when the candidates went over their time.
Notice it’s mostly democratic isealogus who are complaining about the format, the moderator, and trying to explain away Obamas miserable performance last night.
I agree. If it were not for all the Lefty whining, nobody would remember this morning who the moderator was last night. That is as it should be.
Lehrer did not use the opportunity to promote himself. He gave the general topics, kept time (more or less) and kept the crowd out of it. Except for the one "Balanced Approach" lifeline to Obama, he played it right down the middle.
Lehrer messed up according to the Obamamedia by letting Romney speak. That is verboten in debates making it one of the best debates in decades.
We finally have an articulate candidate.
Pray for America
We’ve gone from Bush’s fault to Lehrer’s fault.
Is there some law requiring it?
Obama got more time to stumble and stutter. That didn’t help him. Without his teleprompter, he should have kept his answers short.
The problem is, the Democrats are so used to a partisan media in their favor, that playing it down the middle looks like gross partisanship to them.
Kind of like a golfer relying on a big handicap. When he gets into match play, he’s a goner!
Right. Liberals rely on moderators to help them out in these debates. CNN in “fact check” mode this am trashing romney. These people are zombies who refuse to die and they will try to sping and detract from romney’s impressive performance last night.
Lehrer’s problem as a moderator came from his trying to favor Obama without being obviously unfair: he lost control of time by letting Obama ramble on unanswered, then (to seem fair once Romney insisted) giving Romney a chance to respond. Mostly it happened in the “first segment”. Once he was behind on time Lehrer was burdened with trying to make up time without cutting the candidates off.
“Now they’re going after Jim Lehrer for screwing up as Moderator.”
He was expected to drag Hussein’s putrid corpse (spelled and pronounced correctly) across the finish line last night.
Leftist freaks who aren’t parroting the usual Hussein Head horseclinton are ticked off at Lehrer for not pushing Hussein to victory.
FU Hussein Heads!
Lehrer helped Obama in the fashion you described at least twice, possibly three times. I noted each such occurrence to my wife. I asked her, “When is he going to assist Romney with an answer?”
Disgusting. I knew Lehrer was a leftist, but this was blatant partiality.
Obama fell victim to one of the classic blunders - The most famous of which is "never get involved in a land war in Asia" or the only slightly less well-known which is this: "Never go against a Sicilian when death is on the line"!
You see, Obama read his own press, and believed it! He believes he is a great communicator and that he can convince anybody of anything, as long as he talks long enough.
This open-ended response format is just what Obama thinks he wants, but is the thing that is poison to somebody with his rambling-on tendencies...
he did look tired, but he always does as i remember.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.