Do you think you can come up with better presidential debate questions than Jim Lehrer? Well, get in line behind about 20,000 other people. That’s how many folks contacted Lehrer, former host of the PBS NewsHour and 11-time debate moderator, with question suggestions before he moderated the first debate between John McCain and Barack Obama in 2008. (He read a few of them.)
Lehrer, who was asked to moderate all the 1996 presidential debates because he was the only person both Bob Dole and Bill Clinton found acceptable, recounted his debate experience during a live interview with Martin Kalb at the National Press Club on Monday. Kalb asked him to respond to critics from both parties who slammed his moderating of the McCain/Obama debates. “They’re idiots,” Lehrer deadpanned.
Lehrer offered his own critique of the current cycle of Republican debates. “These debates are critical,” he said. “They should not be seen as entertainment, which they have become.” Audience members should be told that they aren’t participants, he advised. “Shut up. Do not scream. Do not holler.”
Though he didn’t drop any names, Lehrer also tweaked the current GOP presidential field. “A lot of candidates come in there, high and mighty, and boom,” he said. “They came in as big mountains and left as blips because of those debates.”
