’12 election shows debates matter, moderator Lehrer tells LR crowd

Jim Lehrer, the veteran PBS news anchor who has moderated 12 presidential and vice presidential election debates, describes his debate experiences Tuesday night during a lecture at the Robinson Center in Little Rock hosted by the Clinton School of Public Service.
Jim Lehrer, the veteran PBS news anchor who has moderated 12 presidential and vice presidential election debates, describes his debate experiences Tuesday night during a lecture at the Robinson Center in Little Rock hosted by the Clinton School of Public Service.

— Veteran PBS news anchor Jim Lehrer’s only goal of the much-discussed first debate of the 2012 presidential election was to encourage the candidates to discuss the issues directly with each other.

A freer format had been the goal of the Commission on Presidential Debates for years, Lehrer said, and it was the only reason he agreed to moderate after initially rejecting the first two offers from organizers.

So he was pleased to see President Barack Obama and his Republican challenger, Mitt Romney, scrap the standard-length answers in favor of critical discussion, discussion that would later be parsed by pundits as a major moment in the campaigns, Lehrer said at a lecture hosted by the University of Arkansas Clinton School of Public Service on Tuesday.

“My hope is that this will be seen as a positive thing and that it will not scare the daylights out of future candidates,” he said.

Tone, timing and the number of subjects covered in the 90-minute event were lesser priorities, Lehrer said.

“They were talking to each other,” he said. “The plan was working, so I backed off.”

Many viewers saw Romney as the winner of that debate as he seemed to surprise Obama with spirited responses, spawning story lines about momentum for the Republican candidate in the national media for weeks to come.

After the 2012 election “no one will be able to say with any credibility or any kind of a straight face that the debates don’t matter,” said Lehrer, who has moderated 12 presidential and vice presidential debates.

The significance of debates in the 2012 election started in the Republican primaries, when candidates gained and lost front-runner status after notable performances behind the podium.

Just as former House Speaker Newt Gingrich gained traction in polls after a good debate, Texas Gov. Rick Perry stumbled after he couldn’t name all three federal agencies he planned to cut as part of his budget. Perry instead listed two, struggled for a moment, and said “oops” instead of listing a third.

By the general election debates, many viewers have already decided which candidate to support, Lehrer said, but the events serve to solidify prevailing impressions and give the remaining undecided voters materials for making a decision.

When George H. W. Bush looked at his watch mid-debate, it sustained the story line that he was disinterested or bored, Lehrer said.

“This seemingly small thing became an affirming thing,” he said.

The same was true for Vice President Al Gore’s sighing in a debate with George W. Bush and Massachussetts Gov. Michael Dukakis’ “unemotional” answer when the moderator asked him if he would favor the death penalty for the hypothetical killer if his wife were raped and murdered, Lehrer said.

Lehrer had planned to quit the stressful practice of moderating debates when he wrote a recently released book about the experience, he said.

He said he only agreed to participate in the 2012 debates because he was intrigued by the format: six 15-minute segments of largely unscheduled discussion.

“It’s a psychically challenging experience,” Lehrer said. “Well, maybe psychically isn’t the right word. They’re hell.”

Arkansas, Pages 11 on 11/14/2012

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