I'm floored when I consider that Jim Lehrer began his TV broadcasting career with Watergate, and the rest of it has been on PBS in variations of the 6 o'clock news hour -- the first news hour on television. During that forty odd year time span he has moderated 11 presidential debates and earned the sobriquet, "The Dean of Moderators." But, as he told the audience, he will do no more.
Jim Lehrer's speech, though he was born in Kansas, still whispers of his formative years spent in Texas, where he started his life's work behind the mic. But not in the way you might think. Dressed in cream pants and a light blue shirt, he took the stage, choosing to sit rather than stand.
"The dress thing. . . I was leaving the hotel and the people at the Book Fair hospitality suite looked like they'd know what one does sartorially for the presentation, so, I asked them 'Do authors normally wear coat and tie?' 'Are you crazy?! Some will probably appear in shorts.' So I hoofed it back to my room and changed."
Now, here's the story of how the soft-spoken Jim Lehrer began in broadcasting.
"I came to Miami spiritually long before I came physically. Because in the 1950s, I attended a small junior college in the tiny Gulf Coast Texas town of Victoria. I wrote for the school paper. My first big story was headlined 'VC Enrollment Soars to 120.' At the same time I had a job working as a ticket agent for the Continental Trailways bus company. I announced the arrivals and departures.
Here he raised that soft voice and projected it loud enough to reach the back row without any need for a microphone and re-enacted the entire destination route of the bus from Victoria to Gulfport to Tampa to Miami, the end of the line, with the dozens of stops along the way. Each tiny town remembered and confidently cried for the benefit of any of us who might feel the urge to travel by return bus to Victoria. Now we knew what lay in store. It was riveting to listen to the recitation and stunning to realize that he had total recall in such detail from events in his life that occurred 60+ years ago.
"That," he said when the applause died down, "is the first time I was paid to speak into a microphone."
"Now I'm a big believer in Q&A, as you can imagine. I understand it's part of the format here. Let me give you the guidelines. There are only two. 1) I am not a pundit, I don't give my opinion on anything; and 2) I don't handle criticism well.
"Tension City: Inside the Presidential Debates, from Kennedy-Nixon to Obama-McCain is my personal point of view on what takes place behind the scenes of the presidential debates, not the party debates leading up to nominations like we're watching now among the Republicans. The final debates where the two candidates go head-to-head.
"I can't think of anything more exhilarating than the experience I had to sit one-on-one and talk to each of the men and women who were presidential and vice-presidential candidates about their debate experience."
Watch Gwen Ifill's interview of Lehrer here. Transcript included.
"I'm asked, 'Where did the title come from?' When I sat down in front of my typewriter (!), the first thing I typed was 'Moderator,' which remained the working title up until the book was finished and I sent it off to my publisher at Random House. One day I got a call from my editor, 'Jim,we've been talking here. . .' That's never a good thing. 'We're having a problem with the title.' Like I said, I don't handle criticism well and I got a bit huffy. 'That's always been the title, that's what it's gonna be!' 'Calm down, Jim. I have a question for you, would you buy a book title "moderator"?' 'Let me think about it.'
"When I was interviewing GHW Bush, he gave me the line when I asked him, 'What were those days like?' 'Tension is everywhere,' he said, 'It's tension city.'
"In 1988 I had my first experience in moderating with a panel of journalists for the Bush-Dukakis debate at Wake Forest University in Winston-Salem. With me on the panel were Ann Groer of the Orlando Sentinel, John Mashek of the Atlanta Constitution, and Peter Jennings of ABC News. Now, you should know that moderators have nothing to do with establishing the rules of the debate. We must stick to what we're given. At our preliminary meeting, Peter says, 'I'd like to make a suggestion. We forget the rules. Just say, "All right, go at it, guys!"' I said, 'That would be dishonorable.' I was very uppity. Then I asked for a vote. Annie and Mashie agreed with me. Since then, I've thought about it and I've even been asked, what would I have done if they'd voted against me 3-1?
"On one of these debate trips, I was with my wife, Kate, in our hotel prior to departure to the hall. I had all the questions in a folder that I clutched to my chest like my life depended on it. I wasn't actually shaking, but I told Kate, 'I have a bad case of the nerves.' Now Kate didn't literally throw me against the wall, but she set me straight in no uncertain terms. 'Look,' she said, 'both these guys are confronted by a situation. One word. One gesture. It could cost them the presidency.'
"Then I realized, it's the highest risk thing that these candidates face.
"The important thing to remember about general election debates that happen in the late 9-10 months of the election year is that 90% of the voters have already made up their minds. By this time issues and substance have already been decided. What those debates are really about -- the only opportunity for voters to take the full measure of the individual, both at the same time. You know one of those people is going to be the president. Can you imagine how that person might respond to an event like another 9/11? How eagerly he'd send our troops into harm's way? That kind of thing.
"Bob Gates [former CIA Director, former Secy. of Defense under Bush II and Obama] and I were born in the same hospital in Wichita. I was born 10 years earlier and, I like to tell him, prepared a place for him. I asked him, 'What criterion is most important in judging a candidate? He said, 'Presidential temperament -- language of body as well as words.'
For example. You remember GHWB and the watch incident and how that hurt him [During the debate, the camera showed Bush checking his watch for the time.]? When I asked him 7-8 years later, 'What was that watch thing about?' he almost leaped on me. 'Yeah, yeah. I looked at my watch. Clearly, anybody who looks at his watch isn't qualified to be president. Yes! I wanted to know how much time was left in your damn thing. I wanted to get it over. And you can put that in your damn film.' We did -- it was a live interview.
"Other examples, Al Gore grimacing when Bush answered a question. People didn't like it. There was a split between the radio and TV audiences' responses to the follow-up polling. You know, I was the closest person to the two candidates, but I never saw Gore do that. After the debate was over, my daughter said, 'Oh Dad, all that smiling and grimacing -- that's going to be the post-debate story.' Only I didn't know what she was talking about. My rule is to only look at the person talking, so I am not distracted by what the other person is doing. So I knew nothing about what Gore was doing. Before the debate he was ahead in the polls; after, he wasn't.
"Some examples have to do with content. When Gerald Ford said that the Soviet Union did not dominate Europe, for instance. When I was interviewing people for the book, I asked each if they thought that was why Ford lost to Carter but it's hard to single out one thing that would cause a candidate to lose.
"Did you know that there were 16 years between the Nixon-Kennedy televised debates and the next one? I asked Gerald Ford why he issued the challenge to Jimmy Carter since he was already president. 'I had no choice. I was 20 points behind Jimmy Carter. So, I challenged him.
"When I interviewed Bill Clinton, he loved to talk about the debates. He'd be talking still if I hadn't left the room. He's the ultimate student of politics. And he made the point that all these incidents were negatives because they fed an already existing perception. Only reason the watch incident was a deal is because GHWB was already viewed as being aloof and out of touch, Gore's personality was not well-liked [ the famous description of Gore as a man-like object]. Gerald Ford accused Jimmy Carter of having no experience in foreign affairs or military issues.
"Let me say a couple of things about primary debates vs. general election debates. The debates have two different purposes. These ones we're watching now are designed to weed out the candidates. If anybody thinks this doesn't work, I will remind them it's now working.
"Obama improved with every Democratic primary debate, He was the poorest performer in the first -- the weakest. But by the end, he was the strongest.
"Rick Perry has progressed all the way down to the bottom. Michele Bachmann the same.
"Herman Cain is going up -- his current problems aside. My only point is debates matter.
"I have problems with these debates we're watching now. If you think that they should be on the stage, then pull their names out of a hat and treat them fairly. Ask them the same amount of questions. Debate formats so far may not have been terrific but they are very revealing -- the one on the economy. But if you're going to challenge a candidate on their views of water boarding, then everyone has to answer it."
Q & A
Q. Do you have anything to do with the format?
A. No, the only control I have is if invited to moderate, would you do it. I have NO control. It's take it or leave it.
Q. I suggest the moderator have a buzzer to get the candidates back on track.
A. I know. If you're waiting for me to yell, "Liar!" or "He didn't answer the question!" it will never happen. I take the position that I'm intelligent and the audience is too. We are all about civil discourse.
Q. What do you think of the format that restricts presidential candidates to 1 minute answers?
A. My ideal format is 2 minute answer; 1 minute response; 5-9 minutes to flesh out any of their answers at the discretion of the moderator.
Q. Citizens United decision have any influence on the debates?
A. I don't think so. Did you all hear the question? It was 'How many times have you been to Miami.'
Q. How can we keep the candidates to answering the question and not to delivering a paid commercial?
A. If you think not answering the question is a negative, then hold it against the candidate. I interviewed lots of politicians. Trust me, you can't get a real professional to do something.
Next installment of the Miami Book Fair International series will be Isabel Wilkerson discussing The Warmth of Other Suns. Hope you'll join me!