why the f* did Kerry allow Bob Schieffer to moderate

[yellowdawgdem]

This guy is a golf crony of Poppy Bush, and he didn't even pretend to be fair. He gave Kerry no rebuttal if it looked like a chance for a hardball retort. And if Shrubbie looked hot under the collar, he immediately said next question for sen. Kerry, to cool him off. There was no chance whatsoever under these circumstance for Kerry to hit a homer. I don't understand how he could've agreed to having this guy moderate. Also, the questions were not from the audience, Bob Schieffer wrote every one of them, and most were slanted republican. I felt sick to my stomach after watching this, although John still did very well, and still won the debate imo. But the combination of Junior grinning and laughing inappropriately, and Bob Schieffer provoking Kerry by not giving him a rebuttal when it suited Bush, I'm surprised that Kerry did not lose his temper. But he didn't, thank god. But why he agreed to this moderator, I'll never understand.
What was he thinking ?

[glitch]

1. He was thinking he could handle any rigged game, and still win it.

He was right.

[yellowdawgdem]

2. iow, feeling cocky? /nt

[glitch]

6. Not cocky. Confidence does not equal cocky when you have the skills.

to back up your actions. Cocky is when you think you have better skills than you do and you act and fail. You overreach.

Kerry needs exposure to win, and the debates provided that.

[Cleita]

3. That's sort of what Randi Rhodes said today in other words.

These aren't real debates and we know that. I am getting pretty sick of the whole travesty of our government, especially the elections, anyway.

[yellowdawgdem]

7. What'd Randi Rhodes say abt the debate? /nt

[Carla in Ca]

4. Bingo

n/t

[goforit]

5. Yes Bob Shiefer was the worst of all three.......even made Bush look bad!!

[yellowdawgdem]

8. You thought he made * look bad, eh?

How so?

[ThePhilosopher04]

9. Schieffer may be a friend of the Bush family, but I thought he was fair...

and asked solid questions to both candidates. I've seen him interviewed many, many times and I've always felt he is a man of integrity and values his impartiality. Unlike some folks, I choose not to think the worst of people and I do believe there are those in journalism who can separate their personal political views from how they report the news.

[cleofus1]

10. yeah right

boob sheifer is a dumbass...

[Bridget Burke]

11. Just a few quibbles....

When the debate was supposedly on domestic issues, why did Shieffer begin with a question on the "War on Terror" (TM)? That is Bush's favorite subject. And why close with the softball "Faith" question?

[cleofus1]

12. becouse...

boob sheifer is a major dumbass...

[GliderGuider]

15. My own little quibble

Ahem... 'round these here parts, we refer to it as The War Against Terror, or TWAT.

[NYCGirl]

23. The first question was actually about homeland security.

It was the participants who mentioned anything about Iraq, etc.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/politics/debatereferee/debate_1013.html

SCHIEFFER: Gentleman, welcome to you both.

By coin toss, the first question goes to Senator Kerry.

Senator, I want to set the stage for this discussion by asking the question that I think hangs over all of our politics today and is probably on the minds of many people watching this debate tonight.

And that is, will our children and grandchildren ever live in a world as safe and secure as the world in which we grew up?

KERRY: Well, first of all, Bob, thank you for moderating tonight.

Thank you, Arizona State, for welcoming us.

And thank you to the Presidential Commission for undertaking this enormous task. We're proud to be here.

Mr. President, I'm glad to be here with you again to share similarities and differences with the American people.

Will we ever be safe and secure again? Yes. We absolutely must be. That's the goal.

Now, how do we achieve it is the most critical component of it.

I believe that this president, regrettably, rushed us into a war, made decisions about foreign policy, pushed alliances away. And, as a result, America is now bearing this extraordinary burden where we are not as safe as we ought to be.

The measurement is not: Are we safer? The measurement is: Are we as safe as we ought to be? And there are a host of options that this president had available to him, like making sure that at all our ports in America containers are inspected. Only 95 percent of them -- 95 percent come in today uninspected. That's not good enough.

People who fly on airplanes today, the cargo hold is not X-rayed, but the baggage is. That's not good enough. Firehouses don't have enough firefighters in them. Police officers are being cut from the streets of America because the president decided to cut the COPS program.

So we can do a better job of homeland security. I can do a better job of waging a smarter, more effective war on terror and guarantee that we will go after the terrorists.

I will hunt them down, and we'll kill them, we'll capture them. We'll do whatever is necessary to be safe.

But I pledge this to you, America: I will do it in the way that Franklin Roosevelt and Ronald Reagan and John Kennedy and others did, where we build the strongest alliances, where the world joins together, where we have the best intelligence and where we are able, ultimately, to be more safe and secure.

[auburngrad82]

16. I thought he was pretty good

The proof is in how many questions Bush didn't answer or how many he skirted by changing the subjects. Also, when Bush lost his cool and gave his two line answer to the Roe v Wade question, Schieffer didn't give him a chance to continue and finish out his two minutes. He turned it over to Kerry. I thought he was relatively good.

[Domitan]

13. He didn't look overly biased

Bob even told Bush that time was up a few times...none for Kerry (that I saw). Now Gwen Ifill...that moderator threw curveballs into the debate. A good moderator does not unnecessarily bring attention to himself or try to skew the round towards one debator. Bob passed the test last night.

[freestyle]

18. I thought Gwen Ifill did an excellent job.

The major "curveball" was her question about AIDS in the United States, and the fact that Edwards and Cheney were both clueless was a major disappointment. I know Gwen gets bashed around here for being a friend of Condi (and I have no use for Condi), but at least she asked questions some questions that did not even occur to the moderators of the presidential debates. If asking a few questions from your experience as a black woman constitutes calling attention to yourself, then I'm all for it. Both Lehrer and Schieffer are old, white moderates from Texas who have been in the Washington media scene for decades. That has to limit their range of thought. Ifill has also become part of the Washington media establishment, but brings a far different set of experiences. Those need to be heard. I was impressed with Gwen's assertiveness, and especially with her "curveball" questions. We need more of that from the moderators, not less.

I just had to get that out. I was getting a bit uncomfortable with the tone of the criticism of the sister.

[Domitan]

27. Curveballs

I was thinking of
a) the silly "don't mention the President's name" for one round of questions.
b) letting Edwards have the extra rebuttal then pulling back when she realized her mistake.

I don't know much about Gwen and her background, so I have no comment there...just that I was not impressed with her performance during the vice-president debate.

[against all enemies]

14. The last two questions sucked, Faith and wives? please.

Were there any questions on energy use and conservation?

[drscm]

17. Not necessary to have questions on environment. We have a

faith based environmental policy: destroy the world and let god sort it out.

[Terran]

22. They did not suck

He asked them to give both men an opportunity to look human. Kerry had one of his best moments asnwering that question when he joked about "marrying up", and it probably won a few more people over to him.

I thought Schieffer did a perfectly good job as moderator. There were several difficult questions, and I saw bias whatsoever. I have no idea why you people seem to think he did poorly.

[Algorem]

26. He SUUUUUUUUUUUUUUCKS.

[Algorem]

19. Scieffer's purposely clueless.I really hate the buttkissing bastard.

[skygazer]

20. To be fair

The questions were not supposed to be from the audience. In the first debate, the moderator was the one who chose the questions, not the audience, and this debate followed that format.

I thought most of the questions were okay, but just okay, and I though the last two were ridiculous. I would far rather hear the candidate's plans for pressing issues rather than how often they pray or how much they love their wives. Give me a break!

Regardless, I felt Kerry came out ahead. Bush really needed to nail this one to make up for the last two and he didn't. He evaded a number of questions and didn't make a lot of sense on the ones he did answer. He was giggly and offensive and insulted a good portion of the unemployed when he implied that they needed to go to a community college!

Kerry simply needed to hold his own and he did that and then some.

[RollergirlVT]

21. The moderator was the weakest link in the debate

He did bring up questions on social wedge issues like abortion and gay marriage yet, he failed to ask any questions on the environment, a policy that affects ALL Americans. His choice of questions were very irresponsible. He did a great disservice to our country.

[republicansareevil]

24. regarding the debate rules in general...

I have read that it is the incumbent who always has the "whip hand" when negotiating debates. Kerry probably got the best deal he could under the circumstances. At least he got 3 debates.

[Cat Atomic]

25. He asked them nothing about stem cell research, but he did ask

about their wives. I thought Scheiffer was the worst of the moderators. Not for any overwhelming or overt bias, but because he wasted the country's time with softball bullshit.