Today, the Commission on Presidential Debates announced that CNN's Candy Crowley will be one of three anointed moderators during this fall's Presidential debates between President Obama and Mitt Romney. One out of three ain't bad.
Actually, the proportion of female debate moderators to male debate moderators has been heartbreakingly pathetic in recent years; between 1992 and this year, the grand total of ladies relating tough questions to possible Presidents has been 0, a fact that didn't go unnoticed by a few tenacious New Jersey teenagers. Emma Axelrod, Sammi Siegel and Elena Tsemberis collected over 100,000 signatures on their petition urging the Commission to consider a female mod, but weren't able to deliver them by hand because, according to the Daily News, "no one was willing or able to meet with them." That smarts.
The Commission had plenty of perfectly qualified lady journos to choose from — Maria Bartiromo served on a panel of debate moderators during this year's seeming endless, merciless string of Republican primary debates. And Gwen Ifill successfully did not burst out into a "ARE YOU SERIOUSLY FUCKING KIDDING ME?!" during 2008's infamous "Can I call ya Joe?" winky Sarah Palin/Joe Biden Veep debate. And Andrea Mitchell is also a capable, tough interviewer. In the Commission's defense, women cry a lot, and crying tends to waste valuable man talking point dropping time.
Crowley is CNN's Chief Political Correspondant and anchors State of the Union with Candy Crowley on Sundays. She'll be hosting the town hall style debate on October 16th. A week earlier, Martha Raddatz will be moderating the Vice Presidential slapfest.
[NYDN]