Jim Lehrer
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Presidential debate moderator Jim Lehrer showed once again Thursday night why top aides to President Clinton used to call him "our moderator" when presidential debate time rolled around in 1996.
The questions, which Lehrer announced at the outset had been authored exclusively by him, were supposed to help the American people determine which candidate would be a better steward of U.S. national security in a post-9/11 world.
But there were no queries to Sen. Kerry about his long Senate record of voting against defense appropriations, or his sponsorship of a bill to cut CIA funding by $6 billion a year after terrorists struck the World Trade Center in 1993, or Kerry's support of the nuclear freeze movement during the height of the Cold War.
Kerry wasn't asked why he teamed up with Jane Fonda to protest the Vietnam War while his band of brothers were still on the battlefield, or why he met with enemy leaders in Paris, or why he accused fellow soldiers of being "monsters" and "war criminals."
Most Americans would consider the answers to those questions extremely relevant to the selection of any U.S. commander in chief during a time of war.
But not Jim Lehrer. Instead, he focused on Iraq with question after question that suggested Bush had blown it.
Here's a sampling:
"You said there was a miscalculation in Iraq," Lehrer asked the president. "What was it and how did it happen?"
"What colossal misjudgments, in your opinion," Lehrer asked Kerry, "has President Bush made in these areas [Iraq]?"
To Bush: "Mr. President, has Iraq been worth the cost in American lives -10,052 - I mean 1,052 up to today?"
To Kerry: "You've repeatedly accused President Bush of lying to the American people on Iraq. Give us some examples of the president being untruthful on Iraq."
Despite his focus on Iraq, however, Lehrer never asked why Kerry voted to authorize the war, then turned around and voted against the legislation to fund it. Or why he voted against authorization for the first Gulf War, even though President Bush's father had amassed just the kind of coalition Kerry says the U.S. needs now.
Likewise, the PBS host declined to ask Kerry about comments in recent days from French and German officials who announced they have no intention of sending troops to Iraq, even if Kerry is elected.
That's quite a stunning development, given that Kerry's Iraq policy rests almost solely on the promise that he'll persuade Old Europe to pitch in and take some of the load off U.S. forces.
Thursday, Sept. 30, 2004 10:37 p.m. EDT
Lehrer Stacks Deck Against Bush
http://www.newsmax.com/archives/ic/2004/9/30/223850.shtml
"I don't know what in the world you're talking about," Lehrer told radio host Don Imus in his only post-debate interview.
"I would argue that my questions were right down the middle. There were some hardball questions for each candidate. There were some softball questions for each candidate. But for the most part they were just terrific."
The bias complaint, said Lehrer, was more of a commentary on his critics than a valid criticism of his own debate performance.
Still, some observers noted that Lehrer's questions focused largely on negative aspects of Bush's decision to go to war in Iraq – while avoiding Sen. Kerry's waffling on the issue, not to mention the top Democrat's long record of opposing measures to strengthen U.S. intelligence and national security.
At one point Lehrer claimed that over 10,000 U.S. soldiers had been killed in Iraq, before quickly revising that number to 1,052. At the end of the debate, the PBS anchorman shook Sen. Kerry's hand – with some debate watchers claiming he gave the top Democrat a knowing wink.
Friday, Oct. 1, 2004 9:33 a.m. EDT
Lehrer on Defensive Over Biased Questioning
http://www.newsmax.com/archives/ic/2004/10/1/93858.shtml
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