The American Spectator

Thursday’s VP debate moderator, ABC’s Martha Raddatz, has earned as many plaudits as Jim Lehrer earned jeers for his performance at last week’s debate.

Politico’s coverage declares matter-of-factly: “Tonight’s winner: Martha Raddatz.” The New York Times editorial page editor called her performance “astonishing.” On this point I must dissent.

I’ve seen some conservatives complain that Raddatz failed to leash Joe Biden and allowed the vice president to interrupt Paul Ryan time and time again. That’s a fair point, I think. But beyond that, some of the questioning was just bizarre.

For instance: “Mr. Ryan, I want to ask you about — the Romney campaign talks a lot about no apologies. He has a book called called ‘No Apologies.’ Should the U.S. have apologized for Americans burning Korans in Afghanistan? Should the U.S. apologize for U.S. Marines urinating on Taliban corpses?”

Ryan’s response was: “Oh, gosh, yes.” The correct response is: “What the hell kind of a question is that?”

And don’t forget the query near the end: “If you are elected, what could you both give to this country as a man, as a human being, that no one else could?”

Give me a break. That could have been ripped straight from an SNL parody debate. I was going to make a joke about beauty pageants, except that the questions we ask our Miss America are apparently less vacuous than those we ask our Vice President: