Poll Position: Do we need moderators in presidential debates?
Through three debates — two between the presidential candidates, one featuring their running mates — there’s been one constant: The moderators have been part of the story each time. PBS’ Jim Lehrer was faulted by some for being too hands-off; ABC’s Martha Raddatz for being too quick to interrupt; CNN’s Candy Crowley for playing fact-checker during one particularly heated exchange between President Obama and Mitt Romney.
Do we need moderators for presidential debates?
- Absolutely (131 Votes)
- Never (53 Votes)
- Only in some of them (46 Votes)
Total Voters: 230
Loading ...(As an aside, as someone who’s moderated several debates myself, Crowley was wrong to intervene in that manner for two reasons, neither of them partisan: First, it wasn’t her place to offer an opinion; if she was trying to cut off the debate and move on to another topic, she should have simply said, “This one will have to go to the fact-checkers.” Second, fact-checking isn’t part of the moderator’s job largely because the moderator has too much else going on to be counted on to be a reliable fact-checker, from keeping track of speaking time to paying attention to which question comes next and even whose turn it is to give the first answer to that question. Crowley was, we can only assume, going off memory about what Obama said at a press briefing almost five weeks earlier, and with more than 60 million people watching. She was just as likely to make a mistake or misspeak as the candidates were.)
Rather than arguing about which moderator did the best job, or which style is best, my question to you today is: Do we even need moderators for these debates?
Throughout the primary season, Newt Gingrich famously challenged anyone and everyone to “Lincoln-Douglas style debates” without moderators. How much would you like to see Obama and Romney taking turns asking each other questions rather than relying on journalists and “undecided” voters bound to be accused of being partisan? (One thing I thought was clear from Tuesday night’s debate was that none of the questioners sounded all that “undecided” — their questions were aimed at one candidate or the other.)
Ah, you may ask, but who will cut off the candidates when they speak too long if there isn’t a moderator?
Well, the first three debates have proven human moderators aren’t very good at cutting off the candidates anyway. A CNN honcho even defended Crowley’s over-allowance of time to Obama — a repeat from Lehrer’s moderation of the first debate — on the ludicrous grounds that Obama speaks more slowly than Romney and might not have gotten in more actual words during his extra minutes of speaking time.
In any case, technology would do a much better job: Simply flash a red light when a candidate has 5 or 10 seconds left, and then cut off his microphone when the time has elapsed.
And what about the questions? Wouldn’t the candidates just make the debates meaningless or overly partisan by getting bogged down in gotcha-style questions?
Oh, you mean like George Stephanopoulos, apropos of nothing, asking GOP candidates about banning contraceptives last January?
It’s a problem that already exists with moderators. But it’s also one that, if the candidates themselves did it, would force voters to evaluate the candidates for asking such questions rather than letting the moderators take the blame. If Obama or Romney asks a gotcha question, he’d have to defend his choice as much as the other candidate had to defend his answer.
You might guess where I land on this issue, for at least one debate per cycle. But what say you? Do we need moderators in presidential debates?
It’s the return, after a brief hiatus, of the Poll Position question. Answer in the nearby poll and in the comments thread below.
– By Kyle Wingfield
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266 comments Add your comment
Lambeau
October 19th, 2012
1:38 pm
Pat: Except it wasnt their best most current assessment based on the information they had as we have recently learned.
MarkV: Keep on telling yourself that. Then why did Rice keep saying it?
Pat Gunn
October 19th, 2012
1:38 pm
@Tiberius If we knew the content and timing and background of all information sources to the Whitehouse on the matter, we could properly judge this. As is, we do not.
Tiberius - pulling the tail of the left AND right
October 19th, 2012
1:38 pm
I see that MarkV is revising history again through wordsmithing.
Pat Gunn
October 19th, 2012
1:40 pm
@getalife I would not call “the right” or “the left” anything like “terrorist sympathisers”. That’s an ugly accusation built on a twisted interpretation of facts and motives, and will do nothing but inflame the discussion over an entirely non-factual assessment. It’s like you want to make it impossible for discussion. Shame on you.
sailfish
October 19th, 2012
1:41 pm
Let’s split some hairs; acts of terror is equal or not equal to terrorist act? You be the judge-
Lambeau
October 19th, 2012
1:41 pm
Obama (and MarkV) are grasping on to semantics. It’s quite comical.
Tiberius - pulling the tail of the left AND right
October 19th, 2012
1:42 pm
Pat, you really need to catch up on the testimony in front of Congress.
We DO know what was told, who was told, and when they were told.
Susan Rice either took it on herself to lie, or was coached to lie
getalife
October 19th, 2012
1:43 pm
pat,
What would you call it when they want to get our President after a attack.
Tell the truth pat.
td
October 19th, 2012
1:46 pm
Finn McCool (The System isn’t Broken; It’s Fixed)
October 19th, 2012
12:02 pm
Talk about a stretch. Romney left Bain 10 years ago and has no role in the day to day decisions made there. Yes he is still invested in Bain but so is the CA and IL teachers retirement funds and they have more money invested.
Are you going to say that the CA and IL teacher retirements funds are responsible for outsourcing?
getalife
October 19th, 2012
1:46 pm
Inform yourselves cons:
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/10/19/world/africa/suspect-in-benghazi-attack-scoffs-at-us.html?pagewanted=all&_r=0
All the facts are not known yet cons because we have operation there cons.
Try supporting them instead of the terrorists cons.
Pat Gunn
October 19th, 2012
1:46 pm
@Tiberius As far as I can tell, she claims that when she was talking about it, she was using the conclusions of the intelligence community at the time. I don’t see a reason to parse that as lying, and the intelligence community in question is not politically appointed; if I remember my civics classes correctly (was sometime back), the same agencies provide that information, staffed with the same people, regardless of which party controls the Whitehouse at the time.
Pat Gunn
October 19th, 2012
1:48 pm
@getalife I’d say it’s a very motivated attempt to play “gotcha” in election season. Not sympathy for terrorism, just an overly desperate attempt to win. You occasionally see Democrats doing the exact same thing.
Tiberius - pulling the tail of the left AND right
October 19th, 2012
1:50 pm
Pat, it’s the intelligence community who testified in front of Congress that they knew the next day!
Rice lied. Period.
No nuanced. Lied.
getalife
October 19th, 2012
1:50 pm
pat,
The Dems not after 9/11.
You lie and can’t deal with the truth.
The gop hearing outed the CIA building there too.
Does that bother you pat?
getalife
October 19th, 2012
1:53 pm
They did not lie.
They called it a terrorist attack the next day and blamed the movie to cover all possibilities.
Pat Gunn
October 19th, 2012
1:53 pm
@getalife I’m not sure what you’re claiming when you say “the gop hearing outed the CIA building there too.” – can you clarify or rephrase?
@Tiberius In developing stories with intelligence communities, not all of them are necessarily on the same page, and 24 hours can make a big difference. I think you’re trying too hard to pretend you know what’s going on in those communities and in the WhiteHouse so you can find fault there. We don’t have the information we need to judge this.
getalife
October 19th, 2012
1:57 pm
pat,
I watched the hearing.
They called a point of order to shut down their political hearing because their questions outed the CIA building.
You need to get informed before you call me out pat.
Lambeau
October 19th, 2012
1:59 pm
It’s hilarious how Dems can’t be objective about this Benghazi issue. It doesn’t matter what was said the day after the attack. What matters is for two weeks after the attack, the video was blamed for a “protest” that escalated and killed Americans when Washington knew 24 hours after the attack that there was no protest.
getalife
October 19th, 2012
1:59 pm
mitt freaked out the next day and called our President a terrorist sympathizer but they proved they are the terrorist sympathizers pat.
Pat Gunn
October 19th, 2012
2:10 pm
@Lambeau You’re trying too hard. The actions don’t seem problematic, and it seems reasonable/likely that the intelligence community gave mixed signals for awhile. There would be no political advantage to lying about this anyhow. Our government depends on good information, and in the real world that means our elected people are dependent on the groups providing information to them. Nothing unusual about that, and the provided information will normally happen behind the scenes. Either you claim something fishy is going on without really knowing, or you generally assume that they’re generally working with the best info they have.
Pat Gunn
October 19th, 2012
2:14 pm
Was a fun discussion; I need to focus on other things. If anyone’s interested, I’m very googlable. If not, it was nice chatting with you all. Be well.
MarkV
October 19th, 2012
2:15 pm
Lambeau has “the courage” to accuse the president of lying, but is not man enough to prove his accusatiobn.
Dusty
October 19th, 2012
2:15 pm
Well, did anyone see Ramirez great cartoon Thursday n the print AJC? He traced the “terrorist Libya story” all the way from the president’s desk. around the corner, across the street, down the road and then to Hillary’s desk for blame. The trouble I have with all this is the concern seems to be over what somebody said, not over the murdered Americans..
Benghazi was another facet of the war on terror which Bush recognied early on and made every effort possible to fight it. Today we still fight the war on terror with some evidence that the Middle East may finally realize what they are producing. Libya has announced the capture of the leader of the Benghazi incident. Pakistan is outraged over the Taliban shooting of a fouteen year old female, shot because she did not want to be an ignorant slave in their society and said so.
There are a few lights on the horizon but not very many.
Brandt Hardin
October 19th, 2012
2:23 pm
There has to be a moderator for follow up and to control the candidates. Candy did a great job. All the negativity comes from the sore losers- the talking heads guarding the inhabitants of Bullsh*t Mountain from rejoining the world of the sane. Fox News is a propaganda machine which dumbs down America by the day through disinformation and their slanted agendas. See the whole gang of anchors spewing forth feces from their mouths in my visual homage to the network on my artist’s blog at http://dregstudiosart.blogspot.com/2012/10/the-fox-news-scylla-guardian-of-bullsht.html
getalife
October 19th, 2012
2:28 pm
“obl determined to strike”,
w did nothing on Libya.
getalife
October 19th, 2012
2:30 pm
We will get to see patreaus pass out again in another hearing if the gop want to find out why the intell failed.
I doubt they do because they want to get the President not the terrorists.
sailfish
October 19th, 2012
2:31 pm
I see there were no takers on the hair splitting of terror; you all need some bigger fish to fry…um I’m mean more mountains rather than molehills-
I Report (-: You Whine )-: mmm, mmmm, mmmmm! Just sayin...
October 19th, 2012
2:33 pm
For that matter, you could put a tape recorder in place of the dummycrat candidate. Whenever it’s their turn to respond, just mash play and listen to all the wore out talking points over and over again.
No different than obozo, well, a lot fewer gaffes with the machine.
Dusty
October 19th, 2012
2:36 pm
getalife
Pardon my French but please “ferme la bouch”!
Bush rallied the troops and everybody else after 9/11.
MarkV
October 19th, 2012
2:38 pm
Dusty @2:15 pm
Dusty,
You are right about the troubles in the world, and one could add a list of other places and issues, all more important than how quickly the Administration was getting the right information about one incident and related it to the public.
Dusty
October 19th, 2012
2:39 pm
getalife
You will see all of us pass out
If you ever get around to telling the truth.
getalife
October 19th, 2012
2:39 pm
Dusty,
Yes, we ll united after 9/11 the first time.
The second you focused on getting the President.
I remember when you cons were very patriotic.
The West tried to “rehab” daffy then we helped kill him.
The militias that got daffy are now ruling Libya.
Dusty
October 19th, 2012
2:41 pm
Mark V
Don’t agree with me. Ruins my day.
sailfish
October 19th, 2012
2:42 pm
**Bush rallied the troops and everybody else after 9/11**
Then blew it all by going into iraq; the big winner? Iran.
Dusty
October 19th, 2012
2:43 pm
getalife,
I thought you were daffy. To whom are you referring?
Matz
October 19th, 2012
2:43 pm
Um…. Is it a debate — or even remotely informative — when candidates are allowed to simply shout each other down with zero accountability for content?
I appreciate that Ms. Crowley stopped the repetitive shouting of a lie, but I can totally see why tightie righties would prefer the bully method to the fact-check method of selecting a national leader. May the biggest BULLY win! All hail our new BULLY in Chief!
Gross. Seriously. You want me to puke all over this page, don’t you?
getalife
October 19th, 2012
2:44 pm
“Then blew it all by going into iraq; the big winner? Iran”
Then the global economy collapsed..
getalife
October 19th, 2012
2:45 pm
Dusty,
The ex kook dictator in Libya silly.
Tiberius - pulling the tail of the left AND right when needed
October 19th, 2012
2:46 pm
sailfish, nobody bit on your question because it was already answered.
Abstract: “No acts of terror”
Specific: “This act of terror in Benghazi”
These are the facts based on testimony in front of Congress, and they are not in dispute.
Someone at State reduced the security requirements for the Libyan mission. That person has NOT been identified.
No one in the administration (or at State specifically) thought it might be a good idea to beef up security at our embassies in Muslim countries on the anniversary of 9/11.
The Pelosi myth about the GOP not funding security was refuted by the administration’s own witness.
Administration intelligence sources knew within 24 hours of the attack that it wasn’t the result of a demonstration, but was coordinated and planned, and hat someone was told as such. That person has not been identified as yet, either.
If Romney makes this case Monday, and the President stays with the “I’m offended” line, you might be able to see a path where Obama might get re-elected. But if he obfuscates, lies or simply doesn’t take outright responsibility for these failures I outlined above, he’s toast.
Tealiban Party
October 19th, 2012
2:46 pm
I demand to see Cheesy Grits Birth Certificate- Long Form Please
October 19th, 2012
12:25 pm
Can you imagine if Obama had a black son and he had said something like this ? Tagg Romney was asked how it felt when he heard “the president of the United States call your dad a liar.” “Jump out of your seat and you want to rush down to the stage and take a swing at him,” Tagg answered. The outrage from the right would have been enormous.
It would have been fun to see Obama beat down Tagg’s prissy behind on national TV.
getalife
October 19th, 2012
2:50 pm
Our President will tear mitt a new one again on Libya
He will win the last debate.
mitt is not a leader.
If he is a man, he should apologize to our President for playing politics with a attack.
Dusty
October 19th, 2012
2:51 pm
sailfish,
I see you tolerate dictators and have no worries if they have wmds.
When the largest and most thorough investigative systems in the world reports a Middle east dictator who hates the USA has the weapons to kill thousands if not millions of Americans, as president you would sit back and have a beer and say “Forget it!”???
You probably would. It takes a strong personality to make tough decisions. Bush could do it.
sailfish
October 19th, 2012
2:55 pm
tiberius
Ok, so we have the president say that this act of terror will not stand and that the perpetrators will be caught and brought to justice, what more would your like him to do or say less than 24 hours after the fact?
As to the decreased security, that is an issue and for the record we had not had any situations for the previous 10 years regarding 9-11. Everything about the way this is being played out is about the politics. It is a dangerous, unpredictable world out there and situations will occur, all we can do is investigate, get the facts, and correct the problem.
Dusty
October 19th, 2012
2:56 pm
getalife
You should apologize to us for dropping mindless propaganda on innocent blog victims.
getalife
October 19th, 2012
2:57 pm
saddam was bluffing to keep Iran from attacking.
Now Iran and Iraq are allies and control most of the oil.
The 2 trillion military increase for mitt means more war probably with Iran.
He hired the neocons so we will get another failed occupation.
.
getalife
October 19th, 2012
2:58 pm
Dusty,
I am not sorry you can’t handle the truth
That is your problem.
sailfish
October 19th, 2012
2:59 pm
“I see you tolerate dictators and have no worries if they have wmds.”
You lose any credibility for debate – newsflash – no wmd were found! They just wanted him out and the cost in blood and treasure was not worth it because saddam was boxed in and impotent, ask colin powell.
getalife
October 19th, 2012
3:00 pm
“It is a dangerous, unpredictable world out there and situations will occur, all we can do is investigate, get the facts, and correct the problem.”
The gop decided to play politics to get our President.
Who am I?
October 19th, 2012
3:03 pm
I’ve got Romnesia!
getalife
October 19th, 2012
3:04 pm
“I’ve got Romnesia!”