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."
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(Excerpt) Read more at sfgate.com ...
One of the three men on the stage was responsible for Obama’s disaster.
Clearly it was not Romney, who is a loser an old out-of-touch plutocrat. How could Romney have laid a glove on Boy Wonder?
Obviously it was not The Lightbringer, who can do no wrong.
By the process of elimination, it must be Jim Lehrer’s fault! He was the only other person there!
For a man who has moderated numerous Presidential debates in the past, he Lehrer looked disoriented yesterday.
Did he get enough sleep?
RE: “Lehrer sucked.”
I actually thought it was good that Lehrer got out of the way and let the Romney and Obama go at it.
I think he gave Romney more time than Obama to speak. Other than that... I thought Lehrer was OK.
Libs mad at Leaher for failing to throw Obama a life line as he thrashed around in the water.
lehrer did fine, he set the questions, asked follow ups and didnt get in the way, let them get on with it, they seem to forget that Obama actually got 5 minutes more answer time last night and still lost by a mile.
Lehrer did a fairly absent job of it. He wasn’t that noticeable, and that’s good. He’s not the story.
On the other hand, when he did interject himself it was largely in interrupting Romney. The few times he interrupted Obama it was almost coaching: “Don’t you want to talk about this?”
Obama seemed to ramble on and on at times, and he didn’t get stopped. Romney would cross his 2 minutes, and the interruptions would begin.
This was fairly infrequent, however, in the total debate. It was just one-sided when it did happen.
To be fair, Conservatives have been fairly consistent in their criticism of Lehrer.
If things had gone the other way, Conservatives would be taking a much harsher tone on Lehrer.
Like I said before, Stephanie Cutter blamed Obama’s poor debate performance on Jim Lehrer. That is like blaming the Lincoln assassination on the lousy play being performed in Ford’s Theatre.
It’s about time obama had to stand on his own two feet. He’s had media cover since 2008. If obama was able to support his own record he wouldn’t have lost the debate. It’s that simple.
According to the CNN Debate Clock, Obama spoke for three minutes more than Romney.
It just doesn't seem that way because Obama wasted his time hemming and hawing, and Romney was substantive throughout. Obama spoke more words, but Romney said a lot more.
Lehrer tried to help obama by suggesting the answers to the questions is the thing I noticed. Guess the Democrats are mad that didn’t work
I thought Lehrer was a godsend. His open ended questions allowed the debaters to lay out their visions. I am sick of having moderators who use their questions to further the left’s agenda. Recall how little Georgie S and Diane (the spider) Sawyer tried to tie their talking point cans to the various GOP candidates in the primary debate series.
I remember George S. being the one who kicked off the ‘war on women’ meme by asking Romney some ludicrous question about states passing laws that would make birth control illegal. Huh?
Well, we all know they are just pissed off because he didn’t control Romney enough and make Ostupid look good.
Hey lefties, nobody could have helped Obama, not even Lehrer, without making himself look foolish.
Actually it was reported that Obama got four minutes more time during the debates than Rommney and it still did him no good.. I think the moderator done a good job overall but he could not contr9ol these guys. Obama?s ego wouldn’t let and Rommney did the right thing hitting back.
I liked it. I hate the idea that you can get your idea across in one liners, and I liked that both sides were allowed to rebut what the other had said. It allowed Romney to point out weaknesses, and reinforced that Obama is a socialist.
and Obama’s day just got worse...
BREAKING: U.S. unemployment benefit applications rise to 367,000, level consistent with only modest hiring.
I thought "dementia" as soon as I saw him. That diminished, frightened look in the eyes.
How about Lehrer's question on cost cutting vs. revenues... "Don't you call for a balanced approach, Mr. President"?
Obama picked that up and ran with it. That was a clear thumb on the scale in Obama's favor. By that time, though, it seemed like mercy more than an attempt to aid...
It's not being pointed out by the Obama whiners but Lehrer gave Obama a total of 4 minutes longer to speak during the debate.
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