In a rare example of political unity, both the Romney and Obama campaigns have expressed concern to the Commission on Presidential Debates about how the moderator\u00a0of the Tuesday town hall has publicly described her role, TIME has learned.<\/p>\n
While an early October memorandum of understanding between the Obama and Romney campaigns and the bipartisan commission sponsoring the debates suggests\u00a0CNN\u2019s Candy Crowley would play a limited role in the Tuesday-night session, Crowley, who is not a party to that agreement, has done a series of interviews on her network in which she has suggested she will assume a broader set of responsibilities. As Crowley put it last week, \u201cOnce the table is kind of set by the town-hall questioner, there is then time for me to say, \u2018Hey, wait a second, what about X, Y, Z?\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n
In the view of both campaigns and the commission, those and other recent comments by Crowley conflict with the language the two campaigns agreed to, which delineates a more limited role for the moderator of the town-hall debate. The questioning of the two candidates\u00a0is supposed to be driven by the audience members themselves \u2014 likely voters selected by the Gallup Organization. Crowley\u2019s assignment differs from those of the three other debate moderators, who in the more standard format are supposed to lead the questioning and follow up when appropriate. The town-hall debate is planned for Tuesday at 9 p.m. E.T. at Hofstra University in Hempstead, N.Y.<\/p>\n
According to the town-hall format language in the agreement, after each audience question and both two-minute responses from the candidates, Obama and Romney are expected to have an additional discussion facilitated by Crowley. Yet her participation is meant to be otherwise limited. As stated in the document: \u201cIn managing the two-minute comment periods, the moderator will not rephrase the question or open a new topic \u2026 The moderator will not ask follow-up questions or comment on either the questions asked by the audience or the answers of the candidates during the debate or otherwise intervene in the debate except to acknowledge the questioners from the audience or enforce the time limits, and invite candidate comments during the two-minute response period.\u201d The memorandum, which has been obtained by TIME, was signed by lawyers for the two campaigns\u00a0on Oct. 3, the day of the first presidential debate in\u00a0Denver.<\/p>\n
But if the Obama and Romney campaigns agreed to such terms, there is no evidence that Crowley did \u2014 or was ever asked to do so.<\/p>\n
Instead, the agreement between the campaigns states merely that\u00a0\u201cThe Commission shall provide each moderator with a copy of this agreement and shall use its best efforts to ensure that the moderators implement the terms of this agreement.\u201d<\/p>\n
Which helps explain why the two campaigns are suddenly in league.\u00a0After Crowley made her \u201cx, y, z\u201d remarks to Suzanne Malveaux on October 5, the two campaign counsels, Bob Bauer for President Obama and Ben Ginsberg of the Romney campaign, jointly reached out to the Commission to express concern that the moderator\u2019s comments seemed in direct conflict with the terms of their agreement. The Commission sent back word that they would discuss the matter with Crowley and reconfirm her function. It is not known if such a conversation has taken place, however.<\/p>\n
The Commission, both campaigns and CNN declined to comment for the record.\u00a0Crowley referred all questions about the debate format to the Commission.<\/p>\n
The apparent confusion over the town hall moderator\u2019s exact role is the latest in a series of moments that point to the unusual and often fraught relationship between the Commission,\u00a0the campaigns, and the moderators. Ever since the bipartisan panel took over\u00a0the staging of the quadrennial debates in 1988, presidential campaigns of both parties have groused that the CPD is frustrating to deal with and appears at times to represent bureaucratic and institutional concerns separate from the public interest. In 2004, President Bush\u2019s re-election campaign even gave serious consideration to sidestepping the Commission\u2019s part in the process.<\/p>\n
In an unusual departure from the normal hostility that exists between the Obama and Romney campaigns, both parties wholeheartedly agreed with the Commission that they wished to avoid a repeat of what occurred four years ago. In 2008, NBC News\u2019 Tom Brokaw moderated the town hall session between Obama and Republican nominee John McCain, and the two campaigns and the organizers felt that Brokaw redirected the topics too severely from the audience queries and asked too many of his own questions, limiting the number of citizens who got a chance at the microphone. Appearing on NBC News \u201cMeet the Press\u201d on Sunday, Brokaw said, \u201c[I]t\u2019s tricky for the moderator. I said that Candy Crowley ought to get combat gear after I went through that four years ago.\u201d Brokaw told TIME, \u201cI am satisfied citizens in the hall and online got a fair hearing.\u201d Brokaw also said that while there was some press criticism of the job he did, he heard no complaints directly from the campaigns and a Commission official praised the debate to him as \u201cgood television.\u201d<\/p>\n
Throughout the long-running talks between the Chicago, Boston and the Commission this election season,\u00a0there was unambiguous agreement on their shared goal to limit as much as possible the on \u2013camera role the moderator would play in the 2012 town hall debate. In fact, according to one source, the key language from the MOU written up by the campaigns (\u201cthe moderator will not rephrase the question or open a new topic\u201d) was taken directly from the words used by a Commission official during an early discussion about the debate formats. In short, as far as the campaigns are concerned, there should be no new follow up questions in the town hall debate.<\/p>\n
The moderators\u2019 role is always complex. Journalists and news organizations jockey to get one of the coveted slots and become, in effect, partners with the Commission and the candidates. But they are, of course, also reporters who fiercely guard their independence and bristle at any actual or perceived sense that their function is controlled by the organizers or the campaigns. All parties acknowledge that Crowley\u2019s behind-the-scenes role will be quite influential. She will cull the questions submitted by the voters invited to attend the debate, and then decide which ones will be asked and in what order.<\/p>\n
Crowley seems unfazed by the behind the scenes maneuvering.\u00a0Even after concerns were raised in the wake of the Malveaux interview, Crowley made additional comments that make clear she does not feel bound by any agreement between\u00a0the Commission and the Obama and Romney camps. On October 11, on the day of the vice presidential candidates debate, she told Wolf Blitzer,\u00a0\u201dI\u2019m always interested in the questions because you don\u2019t want to \u2014 in a debate, you don\u2019t want to go over plowed ground. Now, this is the vice presidential candidates as opposed to the presidential candidates. So, is there room there to come back to a presidential candidate and say, well, your vice presidential candidate said this? I\u2019m always kind of looking for the next question\u2026. So there\u2019s opportunity for follow-up to kind of get them to drill down on the subjects that these folks want to learn about in the town hall.\u201d<\/p>\n
Sources say both campaigns are preparing their candidates for the debate under the assumption that Crowley might play a bigger role than either they or the Commission want or envision. At the same time, some officials familiar with the deliberations of the campaigns say they hope that by publicizing the expectations for what the moderator should do in the town hall session, and making public the language in the MOU, Crowley will be less likely to overstep their interpretation of her role.\u00a0One key source Sunday afternoon expressed confidence that, despite Crowley\u2019s remarks on CNN, the moderator would perform on Tuesday night according to the rules agreed to by the two campaigns.<\/p>\n
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