Axelrod: ‘Enough already about moderators’

David Axelrod, senior campaign adviser to President Obama, on Monday dismissed concerns about the moderator in the upcoming presidential debate.

He tweeted that Obama is ready for questions from “all comers” in Tuesday’s town-hall debate at New York’s Hofstra University.

Enough already about moderators.POTUS is ready for a vigorous debate and Q's from all comers!

— David Axelrod (@davidaxelrod) October 15, 2012

Both moderators have been targets of criticism following the first presidential debate on Oct. 3 and the vice presidential debate last week.

Jim Lehrer, who moderated the first debate, earned both sympathy and frustration from viewers who perceived him as unable to control the debate. The outcry forced the Commission on Presidential Debates to release a statement later in the week defending Lehrer for doing his job right. He "implemented the [debate] format exactly as it was designed," the statement read.

Martha Raddatz, moderator at the vice presidential debate, garnered accusations of bias in favor of Vice President Biden. High profile conservatives, including Sarah Palin, said Raddatz allowed Biden freedom to interrupt Paul Ryan but frequently cut off the GOP vice presidential nominee.

On Monday, the day before the second presidential debate, the lawyers from both Romney’s and Obama’s campaigns raised concerns about the role Candy Crowley expects to play as moderator in the next debate. 

But Axelrod appeared to brush those concerns aside in his tweet, instead further shoring up expectations that Obama plans to be more aggressive during this debate than the last.

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