Apologists for President Obama’s weak performance in Wednesday night’s debate have found a scapegoat. It’s Jim Lehrer, the PBS anchor who served as moderator. The charge? He let Mitt Romney run amok—that is, talk more—by not enforcing the time limits on speaking.  

This is untrue. As it turns out, Obama spoke four minutes more than Romney did in the 90-minute debate. But since he had so many pauses, stumbles, and instances of “Ah…ah,” Romney actually got in more words, 7,891 to Obama’s 7,350. Romney simply had more to say—and that surely wasn’t Lehrer’s fault.