… Jim Lehrer?  Yeah.  That’s my guess.  The one person who came out looking good in last night’s vice-presidential debate was Jim Lehrer, the moderator of last week’s first Romney – Obama battle.  He had to be smiling big time when this was all over.

I was very willing to give Martha Raddatz the benefit of the doubt.  But if you had ANY doubt that she was in the tank for Obama, all of that doubt should be gone now.  Last night was not defined by the message of either candidate.  It was defined by two things: Martha Raddatz’s insistence on making herself the star of the show and Joe Biden’s grinning and boring and buffoonish behavior.

So .. let’s deal with the moderator.  Biden was Biden.  Ryan was Ryan.  Raddatz was a disaster.  She was clearly not paying attention to what was actually being said by the combatants … she seemed to be focusing more on what policy statement tagged with a question she was going to come up with next.  It seemed that when Ryan was in the midst of making an important point Raddatz would interrupt and say “OK, that’s enough about that.  Let’s move on to something else.” 

Then .. the George Stephanopoulos moment.  You remember what Stephanopoulos did in the ABC primary debate this past January, don’t you?  Here it is: 

“Governor Romney, do you believe that states have the right to ban contraception? Or is that trumped by a constitutional right to privacy?” 

What?  Where the hell did that one come from?  Straight out of the Democrat playbook … that’s where.  There had never been a policy proposal about banning contraception in this election.  Never.  Anywhere.  The purpose of the question was to put that idea into the minds of American women.  OMG!  The Republicans want to ban birth control!  Why else would George ask that question!

Then … here comes the only woman in the country who spends $3000 a year on birth control, Sandra Fluke, and ---- ta da! --- the War on Women is at the top of the headlines!

Last night it was Martha Raddatz paying the role of George Stephanopoulos.  This time the “let’s get the War on Women thing cooking again” question was:

“We have two Catholic candidates, first time, on a stage such as this, and I would like to ask you both to tell me what role your religion has played in your own personal views on abortion. Please talk about how you came to that decision. Talk about how your religion played a part in that. And, please — this is such an emotional issue for so many people in this country — please talk personally about this, if you could.”

Note two things about her question.  First, she talks about their “personal views.”  Then says that this is “an emotional issue.”  This election isn’t about personal views on religion and emotional issues.  It’s about issues relating to governance .. to our economy .. to jobs .. to the threat from the Middle East.  The whole War on Women thing had largely died down … it was time to light the fuse again, and Raddatz was there to do the job for the Democrats. 

In short … I absolutely believe that Raddatz asked that question because she knew that Ryan would be forced to talk about restrictions on abortion (way to go, GOP.  What have I been telling you?) … and Biden would say that it’s just not the government’s job to get involved in a woman’s personal choice on this matter.  The Raddatz abortion gambit played right into the Obama campaign wheel house.  Democrats saw that Obama lost a lot of women support after last week’s debate, and the campaign actively sought to focus again on abortion.  Biden came across on this one as compassionate to the difficult choices women make.  Ryan came across as controlling.  Raddatz had done her job.  Now let’s see if the Democrats can reverse that swing in women’s support with a reignited war on women dialogue. 

Hey, Martha.  Your check is in the mail.