As Susie noted, Mark Halperin wrote an article that's making the rounds Monday about how the campaigns are fretting over the job Tuesday's moderator, Candy Crowley, will do. They are both worried that she'll ask too many follow up questions.
In a rare example of political unity, both the Romney and Obama campaigns have expressed concern to the Commission on Presidential Debates about how the moderator of this Tuesday’s town hall has publicly described her role, TIME has learned.
While an early-October memorandum of understanding between the Obama and Romney campaigns suggests that 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 that 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?’”
How dare she try to limit the talking points? Anyway, it's not surprising that they will try to limit her involvement. I know RMoney loved Jim Leher's performance in their first presidential debate because he stood there haplessly letting them control him throughout. Raddatz was very good in the VP debate, most agreed, and Jon Stewart even took time out to enshrine her in the light of his journalistic flashlight last night. She did insert right-wing spin into a few of her questions.
MS. RADDATZ: Let's talk about Medicare and entitlements.Both Medicare and Social Security are going broke and taking a larger share of the budget in the process. Will benefits for Americans under these programs have to change for the programs to survive, Mr. Ryan?
Social Security is not going broke. The media fell down on this except for Chris Hayes' show on the weekends titled The Up/ with Chris Hayes. Other than that (and her Catholic question about abortion) she was fine.
Now that CNN is hosting the next debate, you knew the Malkinites would be out in force with Bircheresque nonsense to intimidate Crowley into being one tame lady.
Here's Michelle Malkin yesterday, flashing back to 2007: A reminder about the last plant-infested, CNN-run town hall debate
CNN’s Candy Crowley will be moderating tomorrow night’s second presidential debate. It will be a 90-minute town hall forum at Hofstra University on Long Island, east of New York City. Both the Obama and Romney campaigns signed a “memorandum of understanding” about how the debate will be run. But Crowley is already making noises that she plans to circumvent the agreed-upon rules and take control.
Do you remember what happened the last time CNN was in charge of a high-stakes “town hall” style campaign debate?
I do. Flashback: CNN/YouTube/plant debacle.
Refresher...
Oh, my! There are pictures and Youtubes and everything. Conservatives be afraid, be very afraid. How will The Man With The Golden Plates ever survive?
They are setting up an huge backlash against CNN and Crowley if Romney performs badly, no matter how Candy does. Listen, all I ask in a moderator is to have a timer, make them stick to the time and ask some pertinent follow-up questions. I can just see Bernie Goldberg practicing his "librul bias" schtick for Bill O'Reilly in a mirror while he's shaving. OK, that's scary.
Charles Johnson explains the deal about those evil liberal plants: The Attack of the Imaginary Plants
That’s what Andrew Breitbart used to yell, whenever I pointed out that the comment threads at his wingnut websites were filled to the brim with disgusting, openly racist remarks and wild, deranged conspiracy theories. All of those ugly comments were PLANTED! by devious liberals — probably me. And as a matter of fact, Breitbart did indeed accuse me directly of secretly planting all those thousands and thousands of comments, many times on Twitter.
Well, the imaginary plants from Liberalville are showing up again today, as the wingnuts start girding their loins for battle against their own paranoid fantasies.
The absolute dumbest (and most dishonest) person on the Internet, Jim Hoft (aka “Gateway Pundit”) has uncovered one of these dastardly PLANTS — in that photo from a Mitt Romney rally in Ohio, featuring a man with a racist T-shirt. Because everyone knows there are no racists in Wingnut Fantasyworld.
Racist “Supporter” at Romney Event Likely a Liberal Plant | the Gateway Pundit.
Hoft’s evidence that this was a PLANT: he was wearing a T-shirt, but everyone else in the picture had a jacket on!
Only plants do that. Notice that Hoft helpfully adds a popup title to the photo: “liberal tshirt.”
No doubt the person who shot up the Obama offices in Denver was also just a liberal Obama fan out to make Republicans look bad.
For more plant-based paranoia, the always shrill Michelle Malkin gets ready for tonight's presidential debate with a reminder about the last plant-infested, CNN-run town hall debate. Featuring pictures that prove it!
These people are not well.
