Wednesday Night's Debate in Philly: ABC's George and Charlie Tackle Trivia, Not Issues - MediaBizBuzz.com

Just days before the now All-Important Democratic primary in Pennsylvania, viewers faced their upteenth debate -- this time on ABC. After ratings bonanza's for CNN, MSNBC, and Fox, debates have been a bright spot for broadcasters. Apart from the substantive blowback for last night's line of questioning, there was also a fair amount of complaint about the frequency and placement of commercial spots. But onto the shoo...

On the Left flank of the political spectrum, HuffPo's bloggers clearly found the moderators lacking. Questions that were beaten to death -- the Rev. Wright, electability, Bosnia, "Bittergate" -- were given pride of place over the war in Iraq and our current economic malaise. Many -- including myself -- found that discussion around flag lapels ("You were seen wearing one yesterday, but not today. Got a problem with this U.S. of A.?") and association ("your friends with one of the Weathermen, aren't you?") tried our patience.

But for some reason, because they prefer low-lying fruit, some on the Right - notably, Times columnist David Brooks, found last night's interrogation to be peachy keen. (On this point he is correct: Both candidates should not have been bullied by Gibson to make any sort of tax cut pledge.)

Tom Shales of the Washington Post was equally critical of ABC headlining: In Pa. Debate, The Clear Loser Is ABC.

IMHO, Hillary reinforced the meme that has her ungraciously fighting -- at any cost to the Party -- to the death. Obama - frequently losing control of his body language - somehow managed to hold his higher ground. In one of the most economically depressed parts of the country, little was asked, and less ventured, about fixes to trade policy, foreclosures, layoffs, and an uncertain future.

For my money, the best coverage of the night came from Talking Points Memo. TPM shared the overwhelming consensus that last night's event verged on fiasco.

Given that the only story last night was that Gibson hates tax cuts (how else do you responsibly balance a deficit during a downturn?) and that Hillary answered, "Yes, yes. And yes"-- finally cornered on Barack's electability - it's unlikely that the debate will have any effect on next week's contest. What was once a 20-point routing by Hillary has been downsized to a 6-point or less gap. If the polls are right, after next Monday, no amount of spinning will have her mathematically capable of winning the nomination.

While Brooks gave highest marks to ABC ("A"), Clinton a "B," and Obama a "D+," I'm scoring ABC with a C-, Clinton a B-, and Obama to B -- he'd get a B+ for not losing his temper, if I practiced grade inflation.