Kudos to Jim Lehrer

By Tom Quiner

Jim Lehrer gave candidates plenty of space to make their case

Obama’s supporters, in typical Obama fashion, are looking to place blame.

Our president got his behind handed to him in last week’s debate. The impact in the polls is stunning. Mitt Romney has leapt into the lead.

Liberal blogger, Andrew Sullivan, asks worriedly, “Did Obama just throw the entire election away?” The quick answer is no. There’s a lot of politicin’ left to go. Nonetheless, the dynamic has changed.

The Pew Poll reveals the dramatic impact this debate had on the campaign. Before the debate, Obama had a formidable 51-43 lead. After the debate, Romney has a 49-45 lead. That’s an unprecedented 12 point swing from a single debate.

Obama’s poor showing has been blamed on everything from the altitude to conservative leprechauns.

His real problem was debate moderator, Jim Lehrer. Mr. Lehrer let the two candidates actually talk to each other, to really flesh out some ideas. Mr. Lehrer let them move beyond sound bites to talk about their respective style of governance when it comes to the economy.

Mr. Obama has been coddled for four years. As our economy stagnates, he is surrounded by apparatchiks and a fawning mainstream media that loathes capitalism and is hunky dory with our decline. Mitt Romney peeled back layer after layer of Obama’s economic model and exposed its rotten core.

Mitt Romney laid out the Romney/Ryan path to prosperity built on common sense ideas of spending restraint, tax simplification, and a leaner, less intrusive federal government.

We’ve seen where lavish government spending, tax complexity, and an overreaching government has gotten us. Jim Lehrer gave Mitt Romney the space to lay out his vision for America. At the same time, he gave Barack Obama, who actually had more floor time than Romney, plenty of rope to hang himself.