Wednesday, October 17, 2012
4th Time's a Charm?
As the third presidential debate came to an end last night, Candy Crowley followed the paths of Martha Raddatz and Jim Lehrer. All three moderators have had trouble keeping the candidates in line as they debate their way to presidency. The first debate was moderated by Jim Lehrer and many were upset with him for not intervening and letting the Governor and President "run" the debate. Conservatives were upset with Martha Raddatz as she has had previous connections with Obama and last night, According to the Washington Post, "Republicans pilloried moderator Candy Crowley for her attempted litigation of who was right and who was wrong when it came to how and when the White House had labeled the Benghazi attack in its immediate aftermath."To read more, click here.
Why is it that all three moderators have had issues on controlling the debate? Some say it is virtually impossible to be a moderator. When I was watching the debates I noticed that the candidates would answer the questions they wanted to answer, and not the questions that they were asked. Also, they ignored the alloted time they were given and spoke on their own terms. Do you think that people should be focusing so much on how the moderators do? Or should we just focus on what the candidates say and ignore the moderators performances?
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I think it's definitely a valid observation to say that the candidates were running the debate. However, I think it's important that the moderator do his or her job and "moderate" the debate. I think the blame for the fact that this didn't happen can be carried by both the candidates and the moderator. It is the moderator's fault if they can't keep the candidates in line, and it's the candidates' faults if they can't respect the moderator's authority. I think it's best if the moderator really controls the debate, because if not, we just end up hearing about exactly what the candidates want to speak about, not about other issues.
ReplyDeleteI completely agree. Did you watch the third presidential debate? If you did how do you think Bob Schieffer did? I think he did the best by far and really kept the candidates inline.
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