Obama supporters are blaming moderator Jim Lehrer for letting Romney control the clock. But the truth is Romney didn’t have the ball for longer. Obama spoke for fully three minutes longer than Romney, according to the CNN live clock.
And how quiet was Jim Lehrer, really? A check of Wednesday’s transcript shows he spoke about 1,400 words. When Lehrer moderated the first McCain-Obama debate in 2008, he tallied about 1,200 words, so his performance wasn’t out of character. The transcript also indicates he interjected more often than the average presidential debate moderator over the past three cycles. Transcripts show most moderators interject between 60 and 70 times, but Lehrer’s tally was in the 80s Wednesday.
No. Jim Lehrer was not "at fault". And he kept control.
Face it. Obama came into this debate looking un-Presidential, un-prepared, and un-interested in knowing anything about his opponent arguments. He hasn't been seriously challenged or questioned in 4 years. He's spent all that time in a bubble of people who don't call him out for anything he says or does.
As Michael Walsh says:
And how quiet was Jim Lehrer, really? A check of Wednesday’s transcript shows he spoke about 1,400 words. When Lehrer moderated the first McCain-Obama debate in 2008, he tallied about 1,200 words, so his performance wasn’t out of character. The transcript also indicates he interjected more often than the average presidential debate moderator over the past three cycles. Transcripts show most moderators interject between 60 and 70 times, but Lehrer’s tally was in the 80s Wednesday.
No. Jim Lehrer was not "at fault". And he kept control.
Face it. Obama came into this debate looking un-Presidential, un-prepared, and un-interested in knowing anything about his opponent arguments. He hasn't been seriously challenged or questioned in 4 years. He's spent all that time in a bubble of people who don't call him out for anything he says or does.
As Michael Walsh says:
Quote:If last night’s debate did anything, it ought to bury once and for all the myth of Barack Obama’s silver tongue. What viewers saw last night was the real Obama — slow-witted, unable to think effectively on his feet, desultory in his pre-debate preparation, and thoroughly unimpressive without his beloved teleprompter.
Is this therefore a game-changing moment? Not necessarily. But what Mitt did was to expose the president as the Primo Carnera of his day, the mob-owned heavyweight champ who won a series of fixed fights — until he finally found himself in the ring against an opponent who didn’t fear him, and who was more than happy to whale on him, especially once Romney figured out that Obama couldn’t hurt him. Meanwhile, Obama kept looking over at Mitt with a “I can’t believe you know all this stuff” look on his face, while periodically casting beseeching glances at moderator Jim Lehrer, hoping to be saved by a bell that never came.