In my humble opinion, Jim Lehrer was annoying last night. His shtick of “I’m trying to get you two to fight with each other” — “he tried his best to goad the two into battle,” said one commentator approvingly — was obvious and intrusive. Why should they take his lead on this? Each will fight in his own time and maybe not at all.
It takes a sharp panel of news people, each with his or her own hard fact-based questions aimed at pinning the debater to the wall, to provide real, as opposed to manufactured drama. Some who recall the original “Meet the Press” will ask, “Where are today’s Lawrence Spivaks and why aren’t they up there trying to skewer the candidates?
Rush Limbaugh predicted correctly: it was like watching paint dry.
Blithe Spirit 