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(Wall Street Journal)   We've watched every presidential and vice presidential debate since 1988, and in our memory the moderators are just a blur--an endless procession of Jim Lehrers, a significant percentage of whom WERE Jim Lehrer   (online.wsj.com) divider line
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720 clicks; posted to Politics » and Main » on 01 Oct 2008 at 6:21 PM (14 years ago)   |   Favorite    |   share:  Share on Twitter share via Email Share on Facebook



32 Comments     (+0 »)
 
make me some tea [TotalFark] [OhFark]
2008-10-01 5:25:41 PM  
They could have Rush Limbaugh do the moderation and Palin will still screw it up.
 
sigdiamond2000
2008-10-01 5:27:12 PM  
From the Greta van Susteren quote in TFA:

The McCain campaign did NOT know about Gwen Ifill's book (I think I told them when I made my efforts--emails about midnight--to find out!) I am stunned....the campaign (actually both) should have been told before the campaign agreed to have her moderate. It simply is not fair--in law, this would create a mistrial.

I have a hard time believing anyone with an IQ over 80 actually believes this.
 
dletter
2008-10-01 6:00:17 PM  

sigdiamond2000: From the Greta van Susteren quote in TFA:

The McCain campaign did NOT know about Gwen Ifill's book (I think I told them when I made my efforts--emails about midnight--to find out!) I am stunned....the campaign (actually both) should have been told before the campaign agreed to have her moderate. It simply is not fair--in law, this would create a mistrial.

I have a hard time believing anyone with an IQ over 80 actually believes this.


I have to defend them on that point. I mean, I am not sure you are "vetting" the debate moderators in particular before a debate, so, this might not have come up.

I'm sure it was like "Oh, the chick from PBS who did the 04 VP debate.... next issue".
 
MisterTweak
2008-10-01 6:06:12 PM  
There's an amazing thread on Digg on this topic. Lots of comments, all posted within minutes of each other, with near-identical numbers of diggs.

They don't have much else to go with. If they set it up beforehand that Palin's going to be humiliated, they can scream bloody murder when it happens, maybe even let her cry a little on stage for effect.
 
Lando Lincoln
2008-10-01 6:25:02 PM  
The McCain camp will not try to do anything about this. This is a boon to them.

Palin does not faceplant: "Hey, even with a biased moderator, Sarah did great! WE ARE AWESOME!"

Palin faceplants: "Well, it's obvious that the deck was stacked against her, so this does not count."

Why on Earth would they want to switch out Ifill at this point in time?
 
Fart_Machine
2008-10-01 6:26:19 PM  
They should have someone else from PBS do the moderation. Someone who is more up to Palin's speed.

Like Big Bird.
 
popstop
2008-10-01 6:27:17 PM  
My god, I've completely underestimated Palin. This whole time, the babling I undersootd her banter to be was actual complete thoughts spoken in prose. She's clearly on an intellectual level greater than mine.
 
popstop
2008-10-01 6:34:05 PM  
Aw geez, I posted this to the wrong thread. Copying to the other one.

/I told you Sarah Palin was smarter than me.
 
Beachcomber
2008-10-01 6:34:08 PM  

Fart_Machine: They should have someone else from PBS do the moderation. Someone who is more up to Palin's speed.

Like Big Bird.


I think everyone on Sesame Street would vote democratic, except for Bert, probably a republican, Oscar, a libertarian, and Snuffluppagus who is an elephant.
 
BMulligan
2008-10-01 6:35:08 PM  

sigdiamond2000: From the Greta van Susteren quote in TFA:

The McCain campaign did NOT know about Gwen Ifill's book (I think I told them when I made my efforts--emails about midnight--to find out!) I am stunned....the campaign (actually both) should have been told before the campaign agreed to have her moderate. It simply is not fair--in law, this would create a mistrial.

I have a hard time believing anyone with an IQ over 80 actually believes this.


Two possibilities present themselves - McCain's people are lying, or McCain's people are even more incompetent than I thought.

In any event, it's not a conflict of interest - any more than Bob Schieffer's close ties to George Bush will represent a conflict of interest in the final debate.
 
Thrag
2008-10-01 6:35:53 PM  

Beachcomber: I think everyone on Sesame Street would vote democratic, except for Bert, probably a republican, Oscar, a libertarian, and Snuffluppagus who is an elephant.


True. Bert, being an angry self-hating closeted homosexual, would obviously be a republican.
 
Spanky_McFarksalot
2008-10-01 6:37:54 PM  
It's win-win for Mccain. She'll either be so afraid of looking biased that she'll be easy on Palin and extra hard on Biden or really tough on Palin and they can say she has a book coming out and it more liberal media bias.

Why would they want her to not moderate?
 
omgwtfbbq!
2008-10-01 6:37:55 PM  

Beachcomber: I think everyone on Sesame Street would vote democratic, except for Bert, probably a republican, Oscar, a libertarian, and Snuffluppagus who is an elephant imaginary.


/ftfy
 
moralpanic
2008-10-01 6:39:57 PM  
Is it a coincidence that the McCain camp are whining about this the day before the debate?
 
ThunderPelvis [OhFark]
2008-10-01 6:40:41 PM  
If every news show on TV had 1/3 of the credibility of the Newshour, our country would be roughly a kajillion times better off than it is now.
 
HighOnCraic
2008-10-01 6:43:15 PM  
Don Imus, unavailable for comment.
 
pacified
2008-10-01 6:46:12 PM  
Bert is soooo a Republican.
 
Thrag
2008-10-01 6:52:33 PM  
Each of us has our own Jim Lehrer to face...
 
Aexia
2008-10-01 6:56:11 PM  

dletter: I have to defend them on that point. I mean, I am not sure you are "vetting" the debate moderators in particular before a debate, so, this might not have come up.


They apparently were ready to skip the 2nd debate if anyone at NBC other than Brokaw did it.
 
Fart_Machine
2008-10-01 6:58:13 PM  

Beachcomber: Fart_Machine: They should have someone else from PBS do the moderation. Someone who is more up to Palin's speed.

Like Big Bird.

I think everyone on Sesame Street would vote democratic, except for Bert, probably a republican, Oscar, a libertarian, and Snuffluppagus who is an elephant Ron Paul!
 
revelin
2008-10-01 7:01:36 PM  

Thrag: Each of us has our own Jim Lehrer to face...


Yes, but can you replicate his eyes. His black, soulless eyes.

nndb.comView Full Size


/hotlinked for because I care.
 
Epsilon
2008-10-01 7:08:31 PM  
There's nothing wrong with Jim Lehrer. I don't recall him ever screwing up his job as debate moderator.

The fact is I don't care who you put in the moderator position, as long as they can read the questions properly, be completely neutral and unbiased, and be equally fair to both sides with consideration to time.
 
Nickers
2008-10-01 7:17:38 PM  

Epsilon: There's nothing wrong with Jim Lehrer. I don't recall him ever screwing up his job as debate moderator.



Same here, what I've seen of him anyways. Why can't he do the VP debate?
 
moothemagiccow
2008-10-01 7:22:58 PM  
SO?
 
make me some tea [TotalFark] [OhFark]
2008-10-01 7:24:17 PM  

Epsilon: There's nothing wrong with Jim Lehrer. I don't recall him ever screwing up his job as debate moderator.

The fact is I don't care who you put in the moderator position, as long as they can read the questions properly, be completely neutral and unbiased, and be equally fair to both sides with consideration to time.


Lehrer is the boringest, blandest news anchor in the biz today. He's perfect to moderate debates for that reason, and I also watch NewsHour to cut the bias out of the news each day.
 
mksmith
2008-10-01 7:48:52 PM  
Nate Silver posted this on FiveThirtyEight this morning:

I think that the Obama campaign has little to lose and everything to gain by encouraging the CPD to have Gwen Ifill to pull out of moderating the VP debate.

It's not that the right's critique isn't utterly transparent, but media backlash was one of the principal dynamics in motivating the Palin bounce in the first place.

But there's another factor here too. In preparing for a debate, you are often preparing nearly as much for the "judge" or moderator as for the opponent. Both campaigns probably have a pretty good idea of what types of questions she is likely to ask, how he is likely to ask them. Palin and Biden have undoubtedly watched videotapes of Ifill moderating the 2004 debate between John Edwards and Dick Cheney.

By changing the moderator, you're throwing everyone a curveball, and catering to the candidate who is better able to adapt on the fly. Which, most likely, is not going to be Sarah Palin.

This is a damned good point and I'm pretty sure someone at Obama HQ keeps up with that site. They should do it about Noon on Thursday.
 
larsinio
2008-10-01 7:55:55 PM  
Jim Lehrer is awesome, but hes no Mcneil

/big fan of the news hour - it seperates News from commentary, AMAZING!
 
spiderbarks
2008-10-01 7:58:11 PM  
"Lehrer is the boringest, blandest news anchor in the biz today."

It's not just him it's the entire News Hour. Same thing with Washington Week with Gwen Ifill. Dry as dirt. It's perfect.
No screaming. Little to no interuption of the person speaking. Mainstream pundits can't handle the self-effacing style of PBS news. Just ask Melanie Morgan.
Folks can complain about Bill Moyers & NOW but he was never part of the News Hour.
 
macsully
2008-10-01 8:15:47 PM  
Bill Moyer for moderator! Oh wait. He wrote a book about Democracy so clearly he's no good.
 
Mentat [TotalFark]
2008-10-01 8:26:06 PM  
[image from img301.imageshack.us too old to be available]
 
make me some tea [TotalFark] [OhFark]
2008-10-01 8:31:57 PM  

spiderbarks: "Lehrer is the boringest, blandest news anchor in the biz today."

It's not just him it's the entire News Hour. Same thing with Washington Week with Gwen Ifill. Dry as dirt. It's perfect.
No screaming. Little to no interuption of the person speaking. Mainstream pundits can't handle the self-effacing style of PBS news. Just ask Melanie Morgan.
Folks can complain about Bill Moyers & NOW but he was never part of the News Hour.


Yup.
 
Senor Revington
2008-10-01 10:05:27 PM  

spiderbarks: "Lehrer is the boringest, blandest news anchor in the biz today."

It's not just him it's the entire News Hour. Same thing with Washington Week with Gwen Ifill. Dry as dirt. It's perfect.
No screaming. Little to no interuption of the person speaking. Mainstream pundits can't handle the self-effacing style of PBS news. Just ask Melanie Morgan.
Folks can complain about Bill Moyers & NOW but he was never part of the News Hour.


I guess unbiased news isn't exciting. If you want OMG SKDHFASOHFNAQWO"NISA DRAMA!!!!! watch some reality tv shows.
 
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