The speaker pro tempore the prayer will be offered by our chaplain, father conroy. Chaplain conroy let us pray. Eternal god, we give you thanks for giving us another day. We thank you once again that we, your creatures, can come before you and ask guidance for the men and women of this assembly. Send your spirit of peace as they visit their families and constituencies back home. May their hears and hearts be ears and hearts be open to listen to those whom they represent. Bless the people of this great nation with wisdom, knowledge and understanding that they might be responsibly participate in our american democracy by making their interests known to their representatives. Please keep all who work for the peoples house in good health that they might faithfully fulfill the great responsibility given them and their service to the work of the capital. Bless us this day and every day and may that is done here be done for your greater honor and glory. Amen. The speaker pro tempore the chair
Hello and welcome to the National Press corps and the kalb report. I am amrtimartin calb. Most would agree for the 2012 election being too long, too loud, and too noisy. Except for the last month, with three president ial debates and one vicepresident ial debate. 70 million watched the first and 60 million watched each of the other three. Only the super bowl did better than that. In 11 of the last 14 debates, there have been these debates and they are a fixed feature of the political landscape. We have a wonderful opportunity to talk to three moderatores of the 2012 debate. To my right is jim lehhrer, who has done 12 debates. Nobody will catch up to that. The most honored former anchor and prolific author and winner of every prize in journalism. To my left, bob schieffer, anchor of face the nation and an author and winner of many journalism awards, and Martha Raddatz, the chief Global Affairs correspondent. She spent a lot of time in iraq and afghanistan and winner of many prizes for h
Has done 12 debates. Nobody will catch up to that. The most honored former anchor and prolific author and winner of every prize in journalism. To my left, bob schieffer, anchor of face the nation and an author and winner of many journalism awards, and Martha Raddatz, the chief Global Affairs correspondent. She spent a lot of time in iraq and afghanistan and winner of many prizes for her reporting. Candy crowley cannot be with us because of a family emergency. We send our best to her. Jim and bob have done this debate stuff before. For martha, it was a first appearance. You have done so many interviews in your career. Was this any different . Not at all. [applause] [laughter] janet brown called me. I said, ill take a vacation and go do the debates. It was so different. I was not covering the campaign. I was running around the world. I basically crammed and did nothing but study, like studying for the sats, and then taking them in front of millions of people. [laughter] when i first got
When i first got the call, i was so out of the loop, with how they do it that i remember janet saying to me, so how many are there . We would like for you to do the rest of the debate. The fourth Vice President ial debate. That is how much that i knew and i told my family, when she called it, it was right after, you have either won the lottery or you have been told you have a terminal illness. You did the one Vice President ial debate . There was only one. The gop as you to refer to congressman paul riot as mr. Ryan, but you did not. The day before, one of the people at abc got a phone call, from one of his people and said it there is disagreement with the commission and we get to be called whatever we want to be called. I am not paying any attention to that. I am driving handcuff i am in kentucky and i get the call, and this is ed gillespie. He says, we have work this out and you will call him mr. Ryan. And i said, what about the commission . He said, this is fine with the commission.
One thing that happens in the debates is the candidates come in, and they are ready for what ever debate that they are ready for. I think that joe biden thought that this would be a little bit more contentious. It took him awhile to get adjusted to that. I thought that this was a very interesting thing, to realize that. That this was happening with the candidates. What would you get to see those rehearsals . Now that i have thought about this at this very moment, i dont think obama was prepared for what romney was doing. I was not having done this three times, you cover all the people that you interview in these president ial debates, what do you pick up, and what are the ingredients of political success . Your interviews with people who have risen to the very top, what is it about them . Every debate is different. You talk about the things that were missed in the 2008 debate, which i moderated between president obama and john mccain, these are two very different people and personaliti