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ABC's moderator, Charlie Gibson, picked a pretty good format -- which allowed for real, fairly substantive back and forth.
Pretty clear where his sympathies lie: he hounded the Democrats on traditionally "Republican" issues, such as the threat of nuclear terrorism -- but he did no such hounding of the Republicans about Democratic issues such as global warming or energy policy, or health care, or education. In fact there was NO talk of education (meaning Gibson didn't ask a question about it), except when Richardson brought up that point.
Gibson also allowed Romney top basically become the moderator. Romney got to pipe in after every comment by anyone else. It allowed him to look like the alpha he was trying to be -- the chairman of the board. Too bad the board really looked like a board of egotistical dickheads, beating each other up over the chance to bully and belittle Ron Paul.
The most stunning was, during the Democratic debate, Gibson's confident assertion (during the WMUR politics editor's assault on Democrats' pledges to roll back Bush's tax cuts for the wealthy) that raising taxes on families with incomes above $200,000 would affect two-professor couples who work at Saint Anselm College.
The crowd laughed at him. At home, we two teachers -- one "part time" college professor, one middle school teacher -- slapped our foreheads. Then he tried to correct himself by asserting that, maybe, two public school teachers in New York City make over $200,000.
Yeah. Over the course of 2-3 years, maybe.
Gibson has a major, major case of head-up-ass disease.
This is the guy they get to ask the questions?
