What were your impressions of Gwen Ifill
Find a Conversation
What were your impressions of Gwen Ifill
| Wed, 10-06-2004 - 11:07am |
I personally feel that Gwen Ifill did an excellent job as the moderator, and asked tough questions of both candidates, and made sure that the candidates answered them.
I personally feel that she was refreshing to watch compared to Jim Lehrer, and she should replace Lehrer in any future Presidential debates.
Any thoughts?

Pages
If I am not mistaken, Peter Jennings did one in 2000, didnt he, or was that the VP debate?
I cant remember.
I know that Jim Lehrer (zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz) did one then, and I almost fell asleep, except for Gore's gasps keeping me awake, in time to see Bush staring straight into the camera like a deer caught in the headlights. (I loved the skit SNL did on that debate in 2000).
OMG yes! The guy who does Gore (Derrell Hammond I think---he is THE best impressionist on that show!) does him SO dead on!!! All that about a "lockbox"....and he has his speech mannerisms down too......And I like Al Gore, but it's so funny....he also does an excellent Dick Cheney. The guy they've got doing Bush this year is jusk okay, IMO.....I thought it was funnier when Will Ferrell did him.......
I personally feel that she was refreshing to watch compared to Jim Lehrer, and she should replace Lehrer in any future Presidential debates.>
I agree. I especially appreciated how she tried not to let Edwards slide out of the "global test" comment the way Kerry has tried to do in his ads. I didn't notice during the presidential debate, but it was really striking on reading the transcript how Lehrer's questions both to Bush and Kerry were almost exclusively negative towards the current situation. He asked nothing about Kerrys' senate record on defense, his opposition to the first Gulf War which apparently did "pass the global test", nothing about the fact that the centerpiece of Kerry's Iraq plan has already been rejected out of hand by France and Germany (something Edwards was asked about but never really answered), nothing about Kerry's two completely opposing "knowing everything I know today" statements. Perhaps she had the insight from criticisms of Lehrer to be able to be more balanced in her questioning.
I am in the minority here, but my husband and I both thought that Gwen was much harsher on Cheney than she was on Edwards. She was much tougher on Cheney, than Lehrer was on Bush. Anyway, this morning I figured there would be a big thread on how unfair she was to Cheney-- I guessed wrong.
Re-read the transcripts.
Ifill was equally tough on both candidates, and didnt let either try to get away with simply brushing off the question.
If you re-read the transcripts of the Presidential debate, Lehrers never asked Kerry a negative question about his own record in the Senate, which should have been a focus of at least one question.
Lehrer did have a slight bias, where Ifill did not appear to have one.
Pages