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.
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.
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.
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.
Actuallly, Obama had 4 more minutes of speaking time than Romney did. It just seemed the other way around because of the level of the beating.
Nope other way around. CNN had a time monitor for each candidate. Obama got something like 5 minutes extra. Actual per CNN Obama 42:50 and Romney 38:32
Actually, I saw today that Zer0 actually spoke for 4 more minutes than Romney. It didn’t seem like it though, because Romney dominated.
For the most part he did (got out of the way), but he did have more follow-up questions for Mitt, interrupted him several times at one point, and even tried to help BHO out of his incoherent response in another.
I think it hilarious that after years of moderators picking on Republicans, a moderator is suddenly a problem!
Actually Obama had more time. CNN confirmed that Obama spoke for more than 4 and 1/2 minutes more than Romney. During the debate, I commented that Lehrer was letting Obama go on and on, but cutting off Romney.
In a debate, when it is based on answering moderators questions, the person who speaks first has the advantage of setting the direction. The person who speaks last has the advantage of saying things that do not get immediately refuted.
On the first question, Obama spoke first and Lehrer was going to proceed to a new question after Obama had spoken a third time and Romney only twice. Romney stopped him and said, "He spoke first, so I get to speak last." The contest was over at that point, Romney had won. He had removed Lehrer's ability to provide an advantage to Obama, he had shown command and control in a presidential manner, and he flatly pissed Obama off. Neither Lehrer or Obama recovered after that.
You are wrong about the distribution of time. When I made a point about this first exchange, my wife started score keeping. Obama ended up having the first and last word at a 2 to 1 margin over Romney. Unfortunately for Obama it was because he was performing so poorly that Romney didn't need to respond.
Even the time when Obama said, "I still had 5 seconds left when you interupted" and then spoke for another 30 seconds, Romney didn't have to make a point of it because that 30 second ramble did more harm to Obama than to Romney.