Kristen Welker

I thought she stood her ground best she could in a lousy situation.

She folded every time Trump pointed at her. His intimidation attacks worked perfectly. She let Trump get way more air time to lie, than Biden had to respond to those lies

My thoughts were she did an excellent job without being overly political.

I felt she was fair & allowed both debaters to respond, but didn't allow it to get out of control.

Please tell me why I'm wrong.

nor was he given time to call Trump's lies out. Trump would go on and on, and then with Biden, it was "OK, Moving on" after a few sentences, because she knew he would comply. Even then trump would often barge in, point at her (his pre-deate attack strategy worked great, she was very intimidated) and just keep talking. That is not in control, IMO.

As far as who I would recommend ... I recommend ... WIN FIRST, EVEYTHING ELSE LATER

When you are dealing with someone who won't acquiesce to the rules you agreed to, you do the best you can in the time constraints you have.

She would do very well against right-wing reporters during press conferences.

and as if Pence didn't do the *exact same thing*

This isn't a press conference, she and NBC should have been bettwe prepared for how to deal with his inability to shut up. Either be more aggressive with the mute button or simply ignore him. Or, simply hold a watch in your hand and give the opposition equal time. If Trump goes 5 minutes, then Biden is given 5 minutes. This shit is too important to let a schoolyard bully abuse the process. His pre-debate intimidation attacks worked great.

Fortunately, it appears most people saw through that, based on polls and twitter. But still, IMO, she was not any more effective than Wallace, Trump was simply more restrained. If he had gone off like that, she would never have said anything after the first five minutes.

I've not seen her before that I can recall, but I am not impressed

I don’t think she did a good job. She let Trump run the time.

Did Trump actually have more time or did it just seem that way? I think he did.

I didn’t watch it all, but thought she did a fantastic job.

Those eyes. So dreamy.

no need to recruit some reporter. That's a Trump move.

Good Lord, she had an insanely hard job, to corral that idiot and try to actually get some info out. I thought she did better than any of the others.

I understand that she had a hard job to do but I felt like she caved to Trump. She should have admonished him, at least, that his mike would be turned off as had been agreed.

I did think her questions were good ones.

It’s interesting that there is a difference of opinion. But great that we can still disagree civilly.

One odd and interesting fact was Spanky’s sucking up to her..But I don’t think she controlled the mics. I believe the debate commission did. Who that really is I don’t know.

It was a thankless job. That’s for sure.

the beginning of each category was it agreed mics would be muted. She had no control over that.

I thought she did great.

I said she should have admonished Trump with that.

She never once said anything to him about talking too long.

People seem to want to think because Trump wasn't utterly insane that somehow she was in control. She wasn't. I agree with you, she never admonished him for the contintued talking, she gave in almost every time he pointed or glared at her and said no, (they didn't show her, but I'll bet each time he did that, she looked down and wouldn't look him in the eye) and she didn't afford Biden equal time to respond to the BS. Not impressed with her, nor NBC - they gave Trump a pass two weeks in a row. Fortunately, he is his own worst enemy, so it worked out, but not because she was a great moderator.

It’s just a difference of opinion between DU’ers. But I don’t like being berated by some for not falling in line with the popular opinion. My opinion is just as valid (and no more so) than anyone else’s here.

She wasn’t good and almost everything I’ve read elsewhere substantiates THAT as the popular opinion other than what I’ve seen on DU.

I appreciate your supportive post. At least there are no more debates and I seriously doubt that Ms. Walker would be considered for the post of Biden’s press secretary (as suggested in another thread) so it’s OVER.

Have yourself a great day and stay in touch on DU. We are probably like minded on other subjects, as well.

Yes, we all have our opinions. I like that about DU. I've been berated on FB far worse over this, than I was here, by people I know well. It surprised me, TBH. But then, most people don't really see the underlying psychology of what Trump was trying to do.

That Trump chose not to act psychotic in no way suggests it was due to her controlling the debate or flow of the evening. He dominated and controlled the entire event, using classic male dominance tactics. Remember when he started meeting foreingn leaders and he wouldn't let go of their hands when shaking? That's what that was, also (I'm sure you know this). One leader, I think the head of Spain, stopped that behavior by gripping Trump's hand so hard he winced and actually started to bend his knees, as the guy wouldn't let go, and gripped him painfully while smiling, looking him right in the eye and telling him how great it was to meet him ... for a good 15 seconds or more. Trump stopped doing that after that happened. That's how one treats a bully. His pointing at her and saying no, and her stopping almost every time (she got a bit better later in the debate) was classic and worked as we wanted it to. I would be interested to see her physical reactions, my guess is she looked down, broke eye contact and only glanced back at him during those moments.

Yes, I'm glad this is almost over, and am also glad the votes are pretty much locked in (based on post debate polls), that this wasn't the first debate and that Trump isn't as credible as, say, Reagan.

And finally, I think I've seen your posts on here before, and agreed with them, so you are probably correct in that regard, so I agree, stay in touch! Have a good weekend, and keep fighting the good fight!!

Its not realistic to expect a hyperpartisan in that position. She kept the responses on topic as much as possible with trump refusing to answer questions. Folks saying she let Trump run her over seem to have watched a different debate or had unrealistic expectations.

I’m not being unrealistic. I have an opinion. You disagree and that’s fine. I saw Trump running right over her several times.

I thought she did a very poor job. Is it okay with you that I dare disagree with your assessment? Because if it’s not, too bad.

There you go. 😂

I don’t agree that she did a good job. You think she did.

Can we leave it at that? It’s over...

better then the previous ones have done.