Who won Thursday's debate? Martha Raddatz (the third debater)

CNN ^ | 10/12/12 | Halimah Abdullah

[Clint N. Suhks]

At other times she was the seasoned ABC News war correspondent who kept the two guys in suits taking snarky swipes at each other in line.

She pressed the candidates to give firm answers, such as when Vice President Joe Biden said Republican challenger Rep. Paul Ryan was just saying "a bunch of stuff."

"What does that mean, 'a bunch of stuff?'" Raddatz asked Biden.

Moderator on the hot seat The role of the debate moderator Perspective from a moderator The 2012 debate moderators Raddatz also pressed for specifics such as when she demanded of Ryan: "I want to know how you do the math and have this increase in defense spending?"

Five things we learned from the VP debate When she wanted to direct the foreign policy debate to a new topic, she commanded: "Let's move to Iran."

And to Iran the conversation moved.

She forced the candidates to do a bit of self reflection when she asked: "are you embarrassed by the tone of this election?"

If her trending status on Twitter was an indication, Raddatz schooled the two candidates -- hard news reporter style -- and won accolades from journalistic colleagues in the process.

As veteran PBS journalist Charlie Rose tweeted: "Everyone seems to agree that @martharaddatz is the star of this debate."

His network colleague, Jim Lehrer, host of "PBS NewsHour," was widely criticized last week and skewered by late night comedy shows after serving as moderator of the presidential debate.

Raddatz netted a different reaction.

[informavoracious]

I wrote on another thread:
I did not like that they were all sitting at a table instead of the debaters at podiums. It gives the appearance that the three at the table were “equals” and was designed to intimidate Ryan as the moderator was clearly on Biden’s side. Two against one.

[MayflowerMadam]

For every debate, each candidate’s campaign should provide a list of acceptable moderators. There have to be at least two or three that everyone can agree on. When every debate in an election year is run and moderated by extreme libs, there’s a problem.

A week or so before this one, it came out that Raddatz was a decades-long friend of Obama’s. The GOP stupidly said, “Oh; that’s fine. We don’t have a problem with that.” WTF? When will someone on our side make a wise decision? It’s like the GOP/RNC is filled with sadists.

[chris37]

Paul Ryan.

[edcoil]

She cut off Ryan 31 times anyone found how many times she did to Biden?

[Democrat_media]

They didn't let Ryan speak . but Ryan should have at least tried to expose Obama and the media for how they are destroying America with 6 trillion in debt that we will never be able to pay back, unlawful executive orders that require impeachment of Obama, massive unemployment and the unprecedented decline of America. That the media and Obama are shoving big government (socialism) down our throat and that the media allows Obama to do anything as it never brings up the debt etc.. See it wasn't so hard I got that in a few words, and I'm a regular joe . Romney did great in the debate destroying Obama the marxist. I'm a regular joe but i can see all this but this Ryan doesn't and many wanted Ryan to be the nominee. Ryan missed an opportunity to tell the American people how Obama and the media are destroying America but failed.