PSoTD

First of all, why would any Democrat really care about Bobo's review of the debate? He's going to support McCain in the general editorially anyways, so of course he's going to find ways to trash the candidates.

But his review of how to moderate a debate? I disagree with this premise:

I understand the complaints, but I thought the questions were excellent. The journalist’s job is to make politicians uncomfortable, to explore evasions, contradictions and vulnerabilities.

I don't think that's it at all. I think the journalist's job is to dig for information that will be of use to the public, and in a political debate, of use to the public for their participation in civic decision-making. That could be what Brooks is describing, but only if the areas of exploration are of value.

Brooks is stressing technique over everything else in the debate, and I guess I just don't think that's the top priority for most Americans. Most Americans want content - technique is secondary to the delivery of the goods. To the degree of delivering content, ABC failed in an appalling way. ABC deserves an F, but a very special F, the kind where you have to go back and take the class over again in order to participate in the final project, because they not only ran a debate where they didn't understand the most important premise, but they did it on perhaps the final debate before the nomination is determined. ABC could not have picked a worse time to be this horrible.