The contrast in moderating styles between Martha Raddatz and Jim Lehrer is like the difference between Huckleberry Hound and a pitbull on cocaine. Raddatz didn’t just say, “Hey, guys, talk about the economy now for half an hour” and then sit back to watch it unfold. She controlled the discussion, grilled the candidates for specifics, and actually asked follow-up questions, earning her many rave reviews from fellow journalists and others. But to conservatives — who didn’t trust Raddatz from the start because President Obama attended her wedding in 1991 as a friend of her husband — Raddatz clearly had an ax to grind with Paul Ryan last night.
Thanks to the magic of Twitter, conservatives began rallying against Raddatz as the debate was still going on:
Later, Sarah Palin claimed that Raddatz allowed Biden to trample over Ryan, just as the musk oxen trample over people in the tundra, which is apparently something that happens:
CNN contributor and RedState editor Erick Erickson declared that Raddatz was the worst debate moderator evaaah! Or at least second worst:
I think in the history of debate moderators, probably only John Harris of the Politico has done worse. While her friends and colleagues in the media rally around her, let the record state she was, in reality, atrocious.
Even Ryan’s spokesman said he was “not sure” whether Raddatz was fair.
And this morning the Weekly Standard was out with another bombshell scoop about Raddatz’s cozy relationship with the Obama ticket: She once went to Biden’s house for a “Women’s History Month” event! Perhaps this explains why she interrupted Ryan 31 times, which, as Fox News points out, was “12 more than the 19 times she cut off Biden.”
For the side that professes to have won the debate, that sure is a lot of complaining about the moderator.
