Moderator Role Under Scrutiny – Before the Debate
Source: Time
In a rare example of political unity, both the Romney and the Obama campaigns have expressed concern to the Commission on Presidential Debates about how the moderator of the Tuesday town hall has publicly described her role, TIME has learned.
While an early October memorandum of understanding between the Obama and Romney campaigns and the bipartisan commission sponsoring the debates suggests CNN‘s Candy Crowley would play a limited role in the Tuesday night session, Crowley, who is not a party to that agreement, has done a series of interviews on her network in which she has suggested she will assume a broader set of responsibilities. As Crowley put it last week, “Once the table is kind of set by the town hall questioner, there is then time for me to say, ‘Hey, wait a second, what about x, y, z?’”
In the view of both campaigns and the Commission, those and other recent comments by Crowley conflict with the language the two campaigns agreed to which delineates a more limited role for the moderator of the town hall debate. The questioning of the two candidates is supposed to be driven by the audience members themselves — likely voters selected by the Gallup Organization. Crowley’s assignment differs from those of the three other debate moderators, who in the more standard format are supposed to lead the questioning and follow up when appropriate. The town hall debate is planned for Tuesday at 9pm ET at Hofstra University in Hempstead, NY.
According to the town hall format language in the agreement, after each audience question and both two-minute responses from the candidates, Obama and Romney are expected to have an additional discussion facilitated by Crowley. Yet her participation is meant to be otherwise limited. As stated by the commission: “In managing the two-minute comment periods, the moderator will not rephrase the question or open a new topic….The moderator will not ask follow-up questions or comment on either the questions asked by the audience or the answers of the candidates during the debate or otherwise intervene in the debate except to acknowledge the questioners from the audience or enforce the time limits, and invite candidate comments during the 2 minute response period.” The memorandum, which has been obtained by TIME, was signed by lawyers for the two campaigns on October 3, the day of the first presidential debate in Denver.
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Read more: http://thepage.time.com/2012/10/14/moderator-role-under-scrutiny-before-the-debate/
= new reply since forum marked as read
"anxious and obsessing on DU". I find it cathartic 
A half hour later... 
yeah, right. 
And I cringed whenever she was on. I'd love to see her replaced by Rachel Maddow or Melissa Harris-Perry, like that would ever happen. 
anyone have any idea about her political leanings? Can't remember where I read it, but it seemed to me that she skews more GOP.
Side note: article written by Mark "Dick" Halperin which got him "suspended" from MSNBC for awhile. He always looks constipated to me, like "Posh" Beckham - anyone EVER see her smile? 
And her "reports" made me cringe.
instead of the farcical sham they actually are, I PROMISE the first question out of the audience to both candidates would be:
"How is Marijuana a gateway drug to MORE dangerous substances, when Marijuana is listed as a Schedule I narcotic, and motherfucking COCAINE AND METHAMPHETAMINES are listed as Schedule II????"
But oh no, this "town hall" will be all about "Mr. President, what do you think gives you the right to tell the rest of us that we should help care for sick people?" (his answer should be "Because I'm the President of a fucking "Christian Nation", THAT'S WHY, jerk-off.",
and "Mr. Romney, why do you believe that The President is a failure?", and "To both candidates, How will we EVER become Hydrocarbon-and-Energy independent unless we drill for oil and gas offshore, in ANWAR, and open all Federal Land to oil and gas mega-corporations?"
It's a good thing I'm NOT Obama. I would spend half the damn night telling people "You're an un-thoughtful idiot, with zero critical-thinking and problem-solving skills, and therefore too dumb to see that the reason yourself and the rest of the Middle Class is broke and bankrupt, is because you morans keep voting to enable the Willard's of the world. There is only so much I and my fellow Democrats can do to lessen the impact of your decision to be self-destructive, and I don't know how much energy we have left, and at some point, you all are going to HAVE TO start being a willing and proactive participant in your own Salvation."
