Lehrer on Defensive Over Biased Questioning

NewsMax ^ | Oct. 1, 2004 | Carl Limbacher and NewsMax.com Staff

[Ditter]

Every question he asked president Bush was the equivalent of "Have you stopped beating your wife?" The questions he asked Kerry were the equivalent of "Has President Bush stopped beating his wife?"

[processing please hold]

I started sending out emails last night to both print and television news as soon as the debates ended. I smelled a rat last night concerning the biased Kerry-leaning debate. We'll fix their little red wagon.

[unspun]

That Lehrer failed to ask Kerry about his 20 years of cutting weapons systems and US intelligence was inexcusable. Bush's agreeing to him as moderator was a big mistake.

Exactly.

Exactly.

[AmishDude]

(a) We got Dan Rather. Enjoy the sure victory.

(b) It's worth it to complain, but don't go crazy with trying to get a sacrificial lamb over a few biased questions. Bush could have steered the debate where he wanted very easily.

[Irish Eyes]

President Bush, why do you suck? Senator Kerry, why do you think President Bush sucks?

Wow you said it the best and in such few words good for you.

[Miss Marple]

Well, it's not my usual style of speech, but that is exactly what the tone was.

When I called our local talk radio today, I changed it to "why are you such a loser." I just couldn't bring myself to say "suck" all over central Indiana. LOL!

[not2worry]

Well, despite everything, Kerry has given the USA some interesting things to think about, and most of them IMHO aren't going to set well with the American Public!

Getting world approval to defend our Country?

Cutting the defense budget to eliminate new technology to assist our Military and defend us for Terrorist?

Geez, you can put lipstick on a pig, but he's still a pig.

[dougherty]

Is it true that the questions were framed to keep Bush on the defensive and ignore Kerry's many positions?

Yes. Not once did Lehrer question Kerry's Senate record or flip flops on foreign policy. Just more proof, if anyone needs any after Rathergate, that the media is biased as hell.

[PeoplesRepublicOfWashington]

I also think that Kerry had the questions before hand, since his answers seemed to seque quite nicely into the next question.

In response to one question, I recall Kerry talking about Iraq then touching upon homeland security...then, deferring to Lehrer by saying that homeland security would be discussed later. How did he know that?

[dougherty]

It was obvious how Lehrer was going to handle debate with the very first question directed at Kerry - "what 'collosal mistakes' has Bush made in the War on Terror?"

The opening question says it all. And Lehrer has the audacity to deny the questions were fair. Leftists = hypocrites and liars

[dougherty]

fair = unfair

[Miss Marple]

You are quite right. His exact phrase was "I understand we'll be discussing Homeland Security later."

No one will ever convince me he didn't know the questions beforehand.

[Fatalis]

In response to one question, I recall Kerry talking about Iraq then touching upon homeland security...then, deferring to Lehrer by saying that homeland security would be discussed later. How did he know that?

I recall President Bush saying something like that too so maybe they've agreed on topics?

[PeoplesRepublicOfWashington]

Perhaps it was a reference to the overall umbrella of topics that Lehrer defined at the outset, but I don't remember his specific words. I remember my reaction to Kerry's response at the time was "How does he know that?"

[Fatalis]

KERRY: I know I can do a better job in Iraq. I have a plan to have a summit with all of the allies, something this president has not yet achieved, not yet been able to do to bring people to the table.

We can do a better job of training the Iraqi forces to defend themselves, and I know that we can do a better job of preparing for elections.

All of these, and especially homeland security, which we'll talk about a little bit later.

(then later)


LEHRER: Ninety-second response, Mr. President.

BUSH: I don't think we want to get to how he's going to pay for all these promises. It's like a huge tax gap. Anyway, that's for another debate.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/politics/debatereferee/debate_0930.html

[sarasota]

What a perfect comparison!

[Hattie]

Seems to me when a big Kerry worshiper like Imus saw the bias in the questions, it must be pretty blatant.

[F16Fighter]

Thanks for outlining the obvious bias of Jim Lehrer's questioning. It proves:

He underhanded nerfballs to Kerry.

Meanwhile, Bush got high and hard fastballs.

Can we expect the same of the next two moderators?

[eeriegeno]

I have never seen Mr Flip-Flop so on cue to unknown questions. He almost had to know what was going to be asked?????

[rstevens]

I also noticed during the debate that Kerry's responses were very well timed, ending precisely when the red light came on. He was finished at exactly the instant the light went red. In the case of Bush, he seemed to be trying to come up with dialog in order to get to the finish light and seemed to miss the target repeatedly.

I came away with a feeling that Kerry knew in advance what his, and probably, what GW's questions were. Kerry appeared too well informed in his responses.

Even at that, I thought, and still think, GW prevailed.