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:
