Below The Beltway

The blogosphere, especially the left side of the blogosphere, is all over the idea that last night’s debate was ruined by ABC News.

Within minutes after the debate ended, Greg Mitchell had a piece up at The Huffington Post calling the performance by Charles Gibson shameful:

In perhaps the most embarrassing performance by the media in a major presidential debate in years, ABC News hosts Charles Gibson and George Stephanopolous focused mainly on trivial issues as Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama faced off in Philadelphia. They, and their network, should hang their collective heads in shame.

Wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, the health care and mortgage crises, the overall state of the economy and dozens of other pressing issues had to wait for their few moments in the sun as Obama was pressed to explain his recent “bitter” gaffe and relationship with Rev. Wright (seemingly a dead issue) and not wearing a flag pin — while Clinton had to answer again for her Bosnia trip exaggerations.

Then it was back to Obama to defend his slim association with a former ’60s radical — a question that came out of rightwing talk radio and Sean Hannity on TV, but was delivered by former Bill Clinton aide Stephanopolous. This approach led to a claim that Clinton’s husband pardoned two other ’60s radicals. And so on. The travesty continued.

If this were the first real debate between these candidates, Mitchell might have a point. But it’s not the first debate, its something close to the 20th since the Presidential campaign began (ugh) back over a year ago. And, it’s at least the second debate that featured just these two candidates together. There isn’t a single issue that Mitchell brings up that hasn’t already been talked about, ad nauseum, by both of these candidates on numerous occasions.

At the same time, the things the candidates were asked about — Jeremiah Wright, Bosnia, William Ayers, and even bitter-gate — are things that neither candidate has been forced to answer detailed questions about and this is the first opportunity since before Texas and Ohio that the media has had to ask those questions.

Don’t blame Charlie Gibson for the fact that these stories have come up and for asking the candidates to answer perfectly legitimate questions.

The Washington Post’s Tom Shales reacts similarly:

When Barack Obama met Hillary Clinton for another televised Democratic candidates’ debate last night, it was more than a step forward in the 2008 presidential election. It was another step downward for network news — in particular ABC News, which hosted the debate from Philadelphia and whose usually dependable anchors, Charlie Gibson and George Stephanopoulos, turned in shoddy, despicable performances.

For the first 52 minutes of the two-hour, commercial-crammed show, Gibson and Stephanopoulos dwelled entirely on specious and gossipy trivia that already has been hashed and rehashed, in the hope of getting the candidates to claw at one another over disputes that are no longer news. Some were barely news to begin with.

But it’s David Brooks at The New  York Times who seems to be the only one getting it right:

First, Democrats, and especially Obama supporters, are going to jump all over ABC for the choice of topics: too many gaffe questions, not enough policy questions.

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. Almost every question tonight did that. The candidates each looked foolish at times, but that’s their own fault.

We may not like it, but issues like Jeremiah Wright, flag lapels and the Tuzla airport will be important in the fall. Remember how George H.W. Bush toured flag factories to expose Michael Dukakis. It’s legitimate to see how the candidates will respond to these sorts of symbolic issues.

Exactly. If you can’t stand a few tough questions from the likes of Charlie Gibson and George Snuffleupagus, then how are they going to withstand the rigors of a General Election campaign, not to mention the daily rigors of being President of the United States.

This ain’t beanball.