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The Spectacle Blog
There are many criteria that can be used to determine which presidential debate moderator performed best, including the number of questions asked, the quality of the questions, as well as any perceived biases toward the candidates. And of course some candidates are in need of more moderating than others.
But perhaps the most basic measure is which one spoke for the least amount of time, because the less we hear from the moderators, the more we hear from the candidates.
Here’s a breakdown of how much time each moderator spoke. I include all the time the moderators spent talking from the moment the candidates appeared until the moderators signed off. I include not only time spent asking questions but also interruptions and cross-talk involving the moderator. All the debates lasted 90 minutes.
Jim Lehrer (First Presidential Debate): 7 minutes 55 seconds
Bob Schieffer (Third Presidential Debate): 8 minutes 27 seconds
Candy Crowley: (Second Presidential Debate): 9 minutes 40 seconds
Martha Raddatz (Vice Presidential Debate): 12 minutes 28 seconds
The second presidential debate deserves an asterisk because audience members asked many of the questions, and I included the time they took to ask their questions in Candy Crowley’s total.
A few seconds here or there may not seem all that important. But the debates are the only chance voters get to hear directly from the candidates in an unscripted forum, to watch them interact, and to compare and contrast their policy prescriptions. Every second counts.
View all comments (5) | Leave a comment
More Blog Posts by Daniel Allott
http://spectator.org/blog/2012/10/23/jim-lehrer-was-the-best-debate
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RJ| 10.23.12 @ 2:24PM
Crowley was the worst, starting by saying she was going to violate the terms agreed to by both sides. She was a distraction to the debate and became part of the story. While Obama spoke for 3 or 4 minutes more during the "Crowley" debate, she interrupted Romney three times more than she did Obama. Of course, she joined in the debate, but afterwards had to admit Romney was "in the main" correct.
Even more important, she gave us additional evidence that there is collaboration between the moderators and the Democratic nominee's campaign when it turned out that Obama knew she had a transcript of a press conference a few weeks earlier. (By the way, when did she have time during the debate to check the transcript?) Like a trained seal, she followed Obama's instructions when he told to repeat herself. She provided the golden moment in proving the fix was in between the media and the Democratic presidential campaign. She was part of Obama's debate prep.
mike 3/505| 10.23.12 @ 2:33PM
At the risk of my lovely bride heaving a shoe at me, do I need tosay anything about some women not being able to shut up?
I am now ducking for cover. :-)
geronl| 10.23.12 @ 2:38PM
He is also a radical lib
Mike G| 10.23.12 @ 3:59PM
The ideal debate would be moderated by a timer connected to each candidate's mic. The campaigns can mutually decide the specific topics to be covered, and the time to be spent on each. The candidates get to state their positions on the topics, and after the agreed upon amount of time, the mic shuts off, preventing the candidates from interrupting each other, and there is no human moderator to interrupt or skew the debate.
Occam's Tool| 10.23.12 @ 4:06PM
All the moderators were Liberals. But the Texas Boy did best.