Moderator John Dickerson asks a question during a Democratic presidential primary debate. | AP Photo
Winner of the 2nd Democratic debate: John Dickerson
In a tough debate season for TV questioners, the CBS moderator was almost perfect.
The debate season hasn’t been entirely kind to TV moderators and their often-ignored panels of questioners.
From boos for “gotcha” questions and angry complaints directly from the candidates — sometimes right on stage — over debate formats, it’s been a brutal run for some moderators (though a ratings bonanza for the networks).
The ferret-like journalistic questioning of CBS’s John Dickerson, the moderator of Saturday night’s debate and host of “Face the Nation," represented something of an honorable mean between the contentiousness of the CNBC anchors at last month’s unruly Republican debate and the cautiousness of Fox Business anchors at this month’s GOP encounter.
From boos for “gotcha” questions and angry complaints directly from the candidates — sometimes right on stage — over debate formats, it’s been a brutal run for some moderators (though a ratings bonanza for the networks).
The ferret-like journalistic questioning of CBS’s John Dickerson, the moderator of Saturday night’s debate and host of “Face the Nation," represented something of an honorable mean between the contentiousness of the CNBC anchors at last month’s unruly Republican debate and the cautiousness of Fox Business anchors at this month’s GOP encounter.
Few people expected many fireworks from Saturday night’s Democratic primary debate. The horror of the attacks in Paris put a somber damper on the evening, dominating the first half of the debate. But moderator Dickerson and his fellow questioners – CBS News congressional correspondent Nancy Cordes, Iowa’s KCCI-TV anchor Kevin Cooney and Des Moines Register political columnist Kathie Obradovich — were widely praised for being aggressive but respectful, concentrating on sharpening the exchanges and surfacing underlying tensions between the candidates.
“You said Sen. Sanders took a vote on [gun] immunity you don’t like. If he can be tattooed by a single vote and that ruins all future opinions by him on this issue, why then isn’t he right that your vote on Iraq tattoos you forever for your judgment?" Dickerson asked Hillary Clinton at one point.
The question didn’t immediately elicit fireworks, as Clinton quickly responded that her Iraq vote was a mistake, and challenged Bernie Sanders to say the same about his gun vote. But it eventually led to a revealing exchange between the two nonetheless.
Obradovich pushed Sanders on what level of “job loss” he would consider acceptable in exchange for a higher minimum wage, and after he danced around the answer, she prodded further: “Do you think job losses are a consequence that are worth accepting?”
The first hour was more uneven, as the candidates cautiously parsed their differences on national security in the wake of the Paris attacks. But Dickerson, who led the terrorism discussion, deftly cited aspects of the candidates’ record and past inconsistencies to clarify their positions.
He smartly latched onto a 2014 speech from Clinton in which she said she "could not have predicted the extent to which ISIS could be effective in seizing cities in Iraq."
"So you've got prescriptions for the future. But how-- how do we know if those prescriptions are any good if you missed it in the past?” Dickerson asked.
His tone, throughout the night, stayed calm and curious, only rising when it came time to cut candidates’ off for a commercial break.
“Is the world too dangerous for a governor with no foreign policy experience?” he queried a ruffled Martin O’Malley.
Dickerson's question of the night, destined to become a GOP attack line, got all three candidates to dance around the term “radical Islam,” refusing to characterize the Paris attackers by their religion.
"Marco Rubio, also running for president, said that this attack showed in Paris showed that we are at war with radical Islam. Do you agree with that characterization, radical Islam?” Dickerson asked, directing his question first to Clinton.
The Saturday evening time slot — known to be one of the lowest rated nights of the week for television — made for less engagement on social media than in previous debates. But CBS wisely decided to integrate the debate with Twitter — the candidates’ Twitter handle names were plastered on each podium — and used social media to get the candidates to address real-time responses from viewers.
One Twitter comment, highlighted by the moderators, questioned Clinton’s attempt to attribute her large trove of donations from Wall Street to her work rebuilding New York’s business district in the aftermath of the World Trade Center destruction, something many reporters and political watchers were asking themselves. It was one of the toughest questions of the night and generated the most conversation on Twitter.
The move to integrate Twitter was widely praised by journalists and political watchers as, finally, the right way to integrate the social media platform. CBS, tweeted the conservative pollster and analyst Frank Luntz, “just used Twitter perfectly. That question about linking 9/11 and Hillary’s donations was masterful.”
Dickerson’s performance also won plaudits on social media, especially for his calm demeanor.
"Boy, John Dickerson is really winning this debate,” John Podhoretz, the editor of Commentary, tweeted.
"So far Dickerson has had a fair-minded but bracing question for each candidate so far,” NPR’s Ron Elving tweeted.
Concluded Peter Suderman, a senior editor at Reason, "I hope John Dickerson moderates a general election debate.”
