Sep 28 2008
Lehrer Needed Mute Button During Debate
I watched the debate Friday night but I can’t say I was impressed. I was amazed that the University of Mississippi claimed to have spent $5.5 million to host the debate. I wonder if such expense if either standard or wise.
Both Sens. Barack Obama and John McCain gave reasonably good stump speeches during their two-minute opening salvos to the “lead questions” moderator Jim Lehrer of PBS proffered. However, the back five minutes degenerated into people interrupting each other while a weak authority figure tried in vain to intervene.
I thought Lehrer was like Judge Lance Ito, who presided over the O.J. Simpson murder trial. Johnnie Cochran and Christopher Darden often tried to one-up each other while examining witnesses. Ito was far too passive. He didn’t have to reign in a clownish/Judge Judy-type way but it was clear he wasn’t really in charge of the proceedings.
Lehrer, moderating his record 11th debate, needed a mute button. Like Tony Reali has when he hosts Around the Horn on ESPN. If one of the reporters talks too long or interrupting, Reali presses a button which turns off the offender’s microphone for 10 seconds. I wish I had a mute button all the time.
Seriously, it was clear Obama and McCain were working with the Sixth Rule of Media Relations in mind: “When debating, try to get the first word and the last word. That’s what people remember most.”
They’ll debate twice in October. First though, Gov. Sarah Palin and Sen. Joe Biden are scheduled to debate in St. Louis Thursday. I said “scheduled” because–given McCain’s campaign suspension last week–no one is sure the debate will happen until both candidates are in the building.
Well, the actual conservatives in the media are all calling for Caribou Barbie to step down and “spend more time with her family” before she has to face the sound and the fury. And by that, I mean Gwen Iffyl. My guess…Rudy 9ui11iani shows up in drag.
OK, personalities and politics aside, the US is in a huge financial crisis. At the time of the Mississippi debate the original bailout plan was still being hammered out. Can someone tell me what the University of Mississippi spent $5.5million on just to host a debate? Did they have some kind of hand-crafted new debating chamber built? Did they fly all the people in the room on personal jets? Where did that money go? This sounds like something that needs investigating when the dust settles ….accountability and all that!