Weak Moderator?

October 4th. 2012
Dominic A.


                                                                  Weak Moderator?

          During the debate wednesday night, Jim Lehrer was the moderator, supposedly. He was criticized harshly because of his weak moderating. Lehrer was really being controlled during most of the debate. In the eyes of many, Romney was controlling majority of the debate.

     

        Lehrer is 78 years old and didn't even plan on moderating the debate again. He started moderating debate in 1988. Lehrer did a bad job in controlling the debate, but making that an excuse for a loss in not a good idea. There were times when the candidates just didn't care what the moderator had to say. For example, Romney was speaking, Jim tried to interrupt and Mitt just kept speaking.

        Mr. Lehrer felt as though he was going the right thing and staying out of the debate for the most part. However, he struggled with getting the candidates attention, and that caused the final topic to be shortened to only 3 minutes.

      Mr. Lehrer did affect the debate slightly, but he cannot be blamed for a loss of the debate. Lehrer was hoping the new style of debate would work, but 90 minutes was just not enough.