In Debate, Crowley Found Herself Part of the Fray

Candy Crowley has presided over many a partisan free-for-all on her CNN talk show, but the town hall debate between President Obama and his Republican challenger, Mitt Romney, Tuesday night was one of a kind. Mr. Obama and Mr. Romney resembled cable news commentators, talking over each other, arguing over facts, and interrupting and sometimes ignoring Ms. Crowley.

“I just had flashbacks to, you know, when my children were young,” Ms. Crowley said Wednesday on the ABC show “The View.”

Ms. Crowley said on CNN Wednesday morning that she did not feel targeted by either candidate. But many viewers sensed otherwise, continuing a trend that was plainly visible during the first presidential debate on Oct. 3, when the candidates tried to run over the moderator Jim Lehrer of PBS, defying the very debate rules that were negotiated by their campaigns. Vice President Joseph R. Biden Jr. and Representative Paul D. Ryan did the same during the vice-presidential debate on Oct. 11, moderated by Martha Raddatz of ABC. At all three sessions, the moderators have briefly had to double as debaters and join the fray - just like the hosts on cable TV.

Indeed, trampling the debate format has seemed like a part of both sides' strategy.

During discussions about the auto bailout and gas prices, Mr. Romney talked over Ms. Crowley's attempts to change the topic. When each man tried to refute the other's comments about the deficit, Mr. Obama looked at Ms. Crowley with concern about his time allotment, and she told him, “We're keeping track, I promise you.”

Most notably, during a discussion about the attack on the diplomatic post in Benghazi, Libya, on Sept. 11, Mr. Obama said that he used the words “act of terror” one day later and Mr. Romney contradicted him - then both candidates looked toward Ms. Crowley for an intervention.

She provided it, fact-checking Mr. Romney and saying that Mr. Oba ma did say the words “act of terror” a day after the attack. She added that Mr. Romney was right to say that the administration initially characterized the attack as a spontaneous reaction to an online video.

Afterward Ms. Crowley was praised by many journalists for conducting a real-time fact-check, but her decision was criticized by some conservatives as inappropriate. Conservative commentators also complained that she picked questions that benefited Mr. Obama more than Mr. Romney and that she interrupted Mr. Romney much more often than Mr. Obama.

Mr. Romney, on the other hand, also interrupted Ms. Crowley repeatedly - and risked looking like a bully during a debate that was characterized by repeated appeals to the millions of women who were watching. Ms. Crowley was the first woman to moderate a presidential debate in 20 years.

“Moderators are like umps and refs - sooner or later everyone is unhappy with them,” said Tom Brokaw, who helmed the tow n hall debate between Mr. Obama and John McCain in 2008. “That's exacerbated in part because the rules are never entirely clear and the candidates go on stage determined to bend them to their advantage.”

The rules this year, outlined in a 21-page memorandum of understanding signed by lawyers for the two candidates, specified that the candidates could not pose direct questions to each other. But Mr. Romney asked Mr. Obama several questions on Tuesday, including one, “Mr. President, have you looked at your pension?” that allowed Mr. Obama to quip: “I don't look at my pension. It's not as big as yours.”

The rules also specified that Ms. Crowley was not supposed to ask follow-up questions, yet often she did in one form or another. Neither Ms. Crowley nor the private group that hosts the debates signed the memorandum.

Some of Ms. Crowley's critics pointed out on Wednesday that Mr. Romney spoke for three minutes fewer than Mr. Obama. Mr. Romney did, h owever, say nearly 500 more words than Mr. Obama during the debate.

Ms. Crowley did not respond to an interview request on Wednesday, but she said on “The View” that the debate producers told her through an earpiece that “the president's five minutes over Mitt Romney; you need to let Romney speak some more,” and that as a result she did.

Bob Schieffer of CBS, who will moderate the final presidential debate on Monday, said there was no question that the candidates this year had been more combative with the moderators than in the past. “It is the golf course we play on now,” he said nonchalantly.

He said the format for his debate - which calls for the candidates to be seated at a table, as the vice-presidential candidates were last week - might make it easier for him to stay in control of the conversation. With that format, he said: “I think it is just easier to keep them on point. But we'll see.”