Media and the Presidential Debates

The first presidential debate of the current election season has already gone down in history -- from President Obama's apparent "absence," to Governor Romney putting Big Bird on notice, to Jim Leher's inability to keep the candidates in check.

I was struck by the president's lack of focus from the first moment he began speaking. Each candidate was given only two minutes to speak on each issue, yet Mr. Obama ate up 25 seconds -- nearly a quarter of his time! -- to say "Happy anniversary!" to his wife. There's nothing wrong with a little shout out to your leading lady, but keep it short and sweet... the rest of us want to know what you have to say about politics.

I was surprised by how much attention Gov. Romeny's Big Bird comment received. I guess I should have seen it coming, the next day there were a slew of Big Bird memes traveling around the internet, from an illustration of Big Bird forlornly sitting on a wooden box at the city limits of Sesame Street to a video clip from the show that was redubbed with Big Bird obcenely responding to the governor's comment.

One of the most noticable things that happened during the debate was that both candidates continued to talk over Jim Leher's two-minute warnings. Is it Mr. Leher's responsibility to be more forceful, or the candidate's responsibility to respect his authority and stop when they are told time is up? At one point Leher stopped the president at 1:55, to which Mr. Obama said, "I had five more seconds before you interupted me." I thought the statement was particularly harsh, and though I was at home, I still felt uncomfortable! I hope the next moderator is able to keep these men in check!