Colorado presidential debate: Media piles on moderator Jim Lehrer

Politico ^ | Oct. 4, 2012 | MACKENZIE WEINGER

[Second Amendment First]

Colorado presidential debate: Media piles on moderator Jim Lehrer By: Mackenzie Weinger October 4, 2012 01:18 AM EDT

The loser of Wednesday night’s debate, according to many pundits and political commentators?

Moderator Jim Lehrer.

Lehrer, the executive editor of PBS Newshour, sat behind the desk for the 12th time in the history of televised presidential debates on Wednesday night — and drew some of the most blistering reviews of his career. The consensus: Lehrer did not control the debate, failed to enforce the time limits, did not press the candidates enough and generally was steamrolled by the presidential candidates, Mitt Romney in particular.

(Also on POLITICO: Lehrer: The master of moderation)

Fox News Sunday’s Chris Wallace criticized Lehrer for seeming to “lose some control” of the candidates, and questioned whether his questions sometimes helped President Barack Obama.

“Jim Lehrer, a man for whom I have tremendous esteem, seemed to lose control of the debate, occasionally,” Wallace said. “He seemed to just simply throw something out there to keep the conversation going, sometimes it seemed to be helping Obama, like saying, ‘Well, gee, so you are for a balanced approach of tax cuts and spending — tax increases and spending cuts,’ and that really seemed to lose some control.”

On MSNBC, Chris Matthews knocked Lehrer for not being aggressive, saying, “I thought the moderator did not moderate.”

“He didn’t follow up,” Matthews said. “Today, moderators are expected to be aggressive, they’re going to ask a question, they throw it out there, they don’t just say a topic. They ask a question.”

Also on MSNBC, The Huffington Post’s Howard Fineman blasted Lehrer as “practically useless.”

“Jim Lehrer was practically useless as the moderator,” Fineman said. “It was criminal negligence not to follow up on the question — ‘Mr. Romney, specifically what tax loopholes or deductions do you want to get rid of?’ He didn’t ask it.”

CNN contributor James Carville said Lehrer “let those guys freelance and go back and forth,” and MSNBC’s Rachel Maddow noted that “Lehrer — to the extent that he tried to assert himself — got rolled over by Romney again and again and again.”

Before the debate, NBC’s Ted Koppel defended Lehrer’s role as debate moderator, telling POLITICO that “the pressing in a debate needs to come from the adversary: It’s up to the candidates to say to one another, ‘I heard Jim’s question and you’re not answering it.’ This is not about whether we want Jim Lehrer to be president.”

And The Washington Post’s Erik Wemple backed Lehrer afterward, writing that the moderator “deserves a nod” for the “excellent” debate.

“He moderated the thing, after all,” Wemple wrote. “Much of the vitriol headed his way grinds at his inability to enforce time limits, which are arbitrary and dumb anyhow.”

“Lerher’s real problem was that, for one night, he hads [sic] to play stand-in for the entire American media. And if there’s one thing the American public enjoys, it’s bashing the American media, no matter how it performs,” he added.

But many of Lehrer’s fellow TV hosts tweeted throughout the evening, saying they wished Lehrer would make his presence known. “This isn’t a debate, it’s just a polite exchange of views,” CNN’s Piers Morgan wrote. “Come on Jim, get in there and rev things up a bit.” David Gregory of NBC’s “Meet the Press,” meanwhile, noted it “would be great to have more follow up to pin down their views.”

Some were more stark with their assessment of Lehrer: NBC’s Today show weatherman Al Roker tweeted, “I hope Jim Lehrer gets the license plate of the truck that drove over him in this debate.”

Many on Twitter commented on Lehrer’s inability to control Romney, with Aaron Blake from The Washington Post’s The Fix blog writing, “Romney is totally overpowering Lehrer.” Comedian Bill Maher called for Lehrer to push back against Romney, tweeting, “Hey Lehrer, you’re the f—-ing ref, stop letting the Mittbot bully you - he can’t fire YOU.” That wasn’t the only foul-mouthed tweet of the evening, with The New Republic editor Franklin Foer writing, “Biggest p—— of the night: Obama or Lehrer? I’m one of the few undecideds.”

Daily Kos founder Markos Moulitsas dubbed the moderator “tonight’s Clint Eastwood,” and Commentary magazine editor John Podhoretz tweeted that Lehrer “may be the worst moderator in the history of moderation.” But Washington Post columnist Ezra Klein offered a more sympathetic take, tweeting, “I feel badly for Jim Lehrer tonight.”

The Huffington Post’s Sabrina Siddiqui summed up the media’s take on Twitter: “Tonight’s loser: Jim Lehrer.”

© 2012 POLITICO LLC

[funfan]

I am going to start using that- very good!

[newzjunkey]

“Much of the vitriol headed his way grinds at his inability to enforce time limits, which are arbitrary and dumb anyhow.”

Yet Obama got FOUR minutes more than Romney. How was Obama disadvantage?

[gleeaikin]

What really drives me crazy is every time Romney says some raising of taxes on small business people will prevent them from hiring more workers. And then Obama doesn’t call him on it. Neither of them must ever have done their own small business taxes. If they had, they would know that the cost of workers is deducted from the GROSS income, and the taxes are charged on the Adjusted Gross Income less other allowed deductions. Paying workers is a business cost, fully deductible, like machinery, office supplies, etc.