One of the worse things about the debate tonight ...

[Tx4obama]

is all of the PRE-debate talk about it BEFORE the debate happened.

For the past several days all the talking heads have talked about what questions should be asked, what the answers should be, what Obama should do and not do, what Romney should do and not do, etc etc etc.

The actual debate was not going to be like what all the talking heads imagined it would be like in their heads.

I'm disappointed in MSNBC's after debate coverage. They should have been ready to call Romney out on ALL of the lies he told the first second the debate ended - instead of sitting there and having a hissy-fit!

Just my opinion.

[treestar]

1. Yes! Notice MSNBC being obsessed with Obama not doing good enough rather than talking about

what Rmoney did wrong. Would Faux ever do that in the reverse situation?

[woolldog]

2. It's the President's job to call Romney out on his lies.

Not a TV network's.

It's also much more effective and reaches many more people when the President actually does it. Just my opinion.

[Tx4obama]

3. President Obama DID call Romney out on some of the lies, the problem was ...

Romney told way too many LIES to keep up with all of them

[oswaldactedalone]

4. Truth!! n/t

[flamingdem]

8. this was his strategy, how dumb can tweety be not to note that?

Obama would be mumbling and talking a mile a minute to refute all that garbage

[Overseas]

5. Jim Lehrer really let us down. He should have had audible time signals and cut Romney off more often

[MI Buckeye]

9. Mitt played Lehrer like a fiddle.

I wonder if this was part of Mitt Romney's strategy; keep President Obama on the defensive to prevent him from going on the offensive. In addition hoping that he would not have to answer all of Lehrer's questions. This was done by talking over Lehrer and Obama as well as telling half truths and lies, that President Obama would have to clarify before going forward; thereby running the clock out.

[Overseas]

11. Yes I think it was part of their strategy. Keep talking and Jim won't know how to stop you.

[joelz]

6. For me it was that

The Obama and Romney campaigns have secretly negotiated a detailed contract that dictates many of the terms of the 2012 presidential debates. This includes who gets to participate, as well as the topics raised during the debates. We’re joined by George Farah, founder and executive director of Open Debates, and author of the book, "No Debate: How the Republican and Democratic Parties Secretly Control the Presidential Debates." [Includes rush transcript]

http://www.democracynow.org/2012/10/3/ahead_of_first_obama_romney_debate

[Tx4obama]

7. It is the 'Commision on Presidential Debates' (CDC) that sets the rules of who can participate

United States presidential election debates, 2012
-snip-

CPD stipulates three criteria for eligibility: constitutionally eligible, appearance on enough ballots to potentially reach 270 electoral votes, and average at least 15% on five selected national polls. Four candidates achieved the first two criteria: Democratic nominee Barack Obama, Green nominee Jill Stein, Libertarian nominee Gary Johnson and Republican nominee Mitt Romney. Only Obama and Romney also satisfy the third criterion of averaging 15% in five selected national polls and thus are the only two to appear in 2012 CPD debates.

-snip-
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_presidential_election_debates,_2012

Commission on Presidential Debates
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Commission_on_Presidential_Debates

[SheilaT]

10. All the pre-debate talk. Oh, yes.

A lot like the two weeks leading up to the Superbowl.

[gkhouston]

12. I watched it on C-SPAN, which is not pathologically afraid of silence.

It was actually interesting, watching Lehrer sitting there, in near-silence, waiting for debate time.

[LiberalFighter]

13. Part of the problem with MSNBC is that Tweety thinks he knows it all.

He needs to stop drinking that energy crap.