Leher Let the Party Down

Listening to MSNBC one would have thought that losing the debate was all Obama's fault. Sure he was listless and unprepared but that is part of his persona and any semblance of competence would have been interrupted as something less than authentic, an admission that the race was extremely tight. He did achieve a modest tactical point in that he has lowered expectations in future debates but some will carp he has been lowering expectations since January of 2009. Romney, in effect, conducted a seminar on free market capitalism and maybe, just maybe, Obama though of changing his vote. By the end of the evening there was bipartisan agreement that Obama had not done well.
As a testament to just how devious Jim Leher is his culpability went undetected for almost two days. Finally it was observed he was old and white. Too old and too white. Had he only had foresight to check the minority box 30 years ago as Elizabeth Warren did even Chris Matthews would be swearing he was Cherokee and probably John Kerry would have had to take the wrap. Luckily for Leher the Democrats no longer control the congress as he would be holding a subpoena from Henry Waxman by now. The amazing thing about Leher's guile is that three days after the debate it's still not clear exactly how he fixed it. He did allow Obama 5 minutes more speaking time than Romney and he was kind enough to make sure Obama knew that spending cuts should be "balanced" but he could have done more. I'm not accusing the man of overt racism but it is funny Obama didn't have this problem when Gwen Ifill moderated his debate with John McCain. Ifill was writing a book about Obama at the time so no one could doubt her impartiality.
Next week Paul Ryan and Joe Biden will square off and if something isn't done about Martha Raddatz Biden is apt to come off looking like a fool. Maybe there is still time to get Sean Hannity.