RUSH: I got an email, “Rush, do you think that moderator knows how bad a job she did last night?”  And what that question is, she obviously was just horrible, but does she know, is she honest with herself? I don’t know this moderator, so I don’t really know the answer to that, but I can make a very, very educated guess because I know these people like every square inch of my glorious naked body.  And I’m here to tell you, I saw her, I watched her when this was over.  I watched her greet the candidates, go through the whole rigmarole of shaking hands and patting each other on the back and hugging, “Ah, great debate.”  She was not smiling.  She didn’t linger to hang around.  She kind of beelined off. 

I think she knew she had done a bad job, but not for the reasons you think she did a bad job.  You probably are thinking, does she know how many interruptions she made?  Does she know how many interruptions she permitted?  Does she realize how unfair she was?  She is not thinking about her performance that way.  If, whatever her name is, if she felt bad about her performance last night, it would be for one thing only and that is the perception she lost control of it.  She, as the moderator, didn’t dominate it.  And, believe me, that’s what the moderator wants.

All these people who say the moderator’s supposed to blend into the background and not be seen.  BS.  The moderators are supposed to dominate this thing.  In the moderator world, in the Drive-By Media, they’re supposed to be as big, as important, and as involved in all this as the candidates.  I could name a couple names to prove this to you, if I wanted to.  And you would immediately know what I’m talking about.  I’m not gonna do that because there’s a hurricane coming.  Well, it has nothing to do with it.  It’s just a convenient reason not to mention the names. 

“You mean, Rush, she doesn’t know how bad it looked when she kept interrupting?  Any time Pence started talking about the emails or the foundation, she just shut him right up.”  Yep.  Exactly right.  “You don’t think she knows how bad she did?”  No, no, no, no, no, no.  She did exactly what she was supposed to.  Does anybody remember the name Matt Lauer?  Anybody remember what happened?  When they had a candidates forum the end of September, the roundtable discussion. You had Trump in there, and you had Hillary in there, Matt Lauer was the moderator, and he just wouldn’t stop asking her about her emails and wouldn’t stop asking her about things like that. 

Do you remember what they did to Matt Lauer afterward?  They practically excommunicated him and threw him out of the media church.  He lost his front-pew reservation for a long time.  They humiliated him. Even now there are stories about how Matt Lauer is still on the outs at NBC.  Well, I guarantee you this moderator last night knew exactly what to do.  When the emails come up, shut it down.  When the foundation comes up, shut it down.  Otherwise, wherever Matt Lauer is, she’s gonna be joining him.  So she dutifully shut it down. 

I didn’t get to it, and I may have it still in the Stack here from earlier in the week.  There’s actually a story about how the left destroys its own if they fail to toe the line.  It’s about how the media will target and take somebody out if they do not toe the liberal line. 

By the same token, if you’re Dan Rather and you make up stuff to try to destroy George Bush, get caught, they’re circle the wagons and give you a new award and throw a dinner party for you to save their reputation and theirs.  But if you fall off the revelation, if you fall off the beaten path and you start asking Hillary stuff that they don’t want asked, you are histoire. 

So from that, that moderator last night saved her career, saved her job.  But I mean I think her personal, you know, when you go home at night, nobody’s there, and you sit around, final adult beverage of the night, you reflect, I think she probably feels bad that she wasn’t able to maintain control.  Not that Kaine kept interrupting.  It’s that she didn’t do enough to make him look good while he was doing it. 

That’s what I mean by her losing control.  But in terms of the substance and content of the debate, nah, she’s not thinking she failed.  She kept the emails out of it, she kept the foundation out of it, and she allowed Kaine to interrupt every time Pence got going.  So from that standpoint it was mission accomplished.

BREAK TRANSCRIPT

RUSH: The moderators for the next debate Sunday night are Anderson Cooper and Martha Raddatz.  Did you see, they tried to hire Anderson Cooper for Live With Regis and Kathie Lee, which of course used to be Michael and Kelly Ripa, and Cooper turned ’em down.  I better not say what I’m thinking. 

The final debate is Chris Wallace moderating.  That’s October the 19th. (interruption)  Oh, yeah, I’ve got that here somewhere.  There’s a feud that has developed.  Yes.  Rumor has it from Mediaite, rumor has it ABC and CNN are feuding hard ahead of next week’s debate.  The powers that be have chosen to go with a town hall-style setup and two moderators, Anderson Cooper, Martha Raddatz. 

Page Six in the New York Post says that they’re beefing.  Specifically each one of them reportedly wants to be the one who hits Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump with the hard questions.  Page Six reported that sources close to the two networks are describing the Washington meetings between both network producers, talent, and executives is acrimonious. 

Here’s the full quote:  “Getting the two networks together has been a challenge. They are feuding over petty things, such as ‘Who does each particular topic?’ Both Anderson and Martha want to shine, to be tough on the candidates, and not to be accused of bias.” (laughing)  That’s all I need to hear.  This story’s bogus.  And what is this, they each want to be the one to hit Hillary Clinton and Trump with hard questions?  You mean there are gonna be some soft ones?  What does this mean?  That somebody’s gonna be assigned to softballs and somebody gets the hardballs?  Why can’t they be hardball every time they talk?  I don’t mean unfair. 

Is somebody gonna ask Hillary about the server?  Is somebody ask her about the emails? Is somebody gonna ask her about what difference does it make now about four being dead in Benghazi?  She hasn’t been asked that yet.  Is somebody gonna ask her about the way she bullied women who had had affairs with her husband?  Is somebody gonna have ask her these things?  Or are they arguing to see who doesn’t have to ask those?  My guess is neither one of those people want to be the one to go there.  And if they don’t, it’s gonna be up to Trump to do it. 

The rest of the quote is, “So there’s a lot of turf-grabbing going on.”  See?  These moderators, they want to be every bit as much of the show as the candidates.  I don’t care what we hear about, “I don’t want to be noticed, I just want to blend in,” they all want to be Candy Crowley.  Well, in terms of style.  They think they’re in the same league. 

Look, it’s all showbiz, and the news people think that they’re more legitimate claimants to the showbiz aspects of this than even the politicians.  They at least think it’s equal footing.  Well, we’ll find out soon enough how this all plays out.