While it's generally acknowledged that Mitt Romney won the first presidential debate, and that Barack Obama's performance was lackluster, moderator Jim Lehrer is being savaged by viewers and the media for his hands-off, do-as-you-will approach to his hosting duties.
Lehrer took great pains to lay out the format of the debate ahead of time: six 15-minute rounds, each focused on a different question asked by Lehrer. But during the actual debate, he tossed aside his carefully-laid plans and let both candidates run roughshod over his meek protestations about time limits and topics.
"Regardless of who is winning this debate, Jim Lehrer is losing," tweeted Dan Abrams, a consultant for ABC News.
When Lehrer tried to end a round with a statement from the president, Romney forced the moderator to let him speak again. "I get the last word of this segment," said Romney.
And when Obama went over his time limit and Lehrer tried to stop him, the president batted away his objections, saying, "No, I think I had five seconds before you interrupted me."
Lehrer also offered weak and open-ended questions, several times asking a variation on, "What is the difference between you and your opponent on this issue?" Salon lists every question Lehrer asked, and for a debate that was supposed to center on domestic policy, there is no mention of social issues, immigration, money in politics, gun control or the environment.
Lehrer avoided detailed follow-up questions, and never directed any pointed or specific questions about an individual candidate's particular position on a controversial issue.
Past debates have featured tough questions from moderators, like in 1984 when Henry Trewhitt asked 73-year-old Ronald Reagan quite bluntly whether he was too old to be president.
In 1988, moderator Bernard Shaw asked Michael Dukakis how he would feel about the death penalty if his wife Kitty were raped and murdered.
Both questions presented opportunities for candidates to respond in ways that are still remembered today. Reagan uttered his famous line, "I am not going to exploit, for political purposes, my opponent's youth and inexperience."
And Dukakis' professorial response to his wife's hypothetical death destroyed his likeability.
One would think Lehrer would be prepared for anything the candidates could have thrown at him. This was his twelfth time hosting a presidential debate. Last year he claimed he wouldn't do it again, so perhaps this was his way of making sure he doesn't get called back once more.