Rieder: Why Fox's Chris Wallace was a debate night winner
So Debate No. 3 had one clearcut winner: Fox News' Chris Wallace.
This has has been a challenging year indeed for presidential debate moderators, in a campaign filled with all manner of bizarre side issues and a boisterous, sometimes ungovernable debate presence named Donald J. Trump. Previous debates have been chaotic, often embarrassing affairs that did little to contribute to the nation's civil dialogue.
On Wednesday night, Wallace put on a clinic on how to run a debate, He focused heavily on questions of substance. He largely stayed away from the distractions. And he moved quickly and forcibly to keep the debate on track, cutting off interruptions and off-subject interjections. Not perfectly, but pretty darn well.
Wallace was helped in part by the fact that GOP candidate Trump wasn't quite as rambunctious as he was in the first two debates. Nevertheless, Wallace impressed with his low-key but strong determination to keep things moving and keep interruptions and digressions to a minimum. The result was the most meaningful and least silly and off-putting of the general election debates of 2016. Setting the bar pretty low, but still.
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Wallace's performance comes as a major bright spot for Fox News, the perennial cable news leader and major conservative political player that has had a very tough year. Roger Ailes, the founder and long time honcho of the cable news powerhouse, was brought down in a sexual harassment scandal, leading to questions about the network'd future.
There was whining on the left about the selection as debate moderator of Wallace, the first Fox News staffer to hold down such an honor in a general election. But that was based on a total misreading of Wallace, a distinguished journalist with an impressive pedigree. The son of the late 60Minutes stalwart Mike Wallace, Chris Wallace had worked at ABC and NBC before joining Fox, and has long been regarded as a serious journalist, His performance as part of the impressive Fox team during the GOP primary debates this year was first rate.
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Unlike the second debate, an unlovable brawl to be sure, this one had none of the earmarks of bad reality TV. In part, that was because Wallace wouldn't stand for it. "All right, let's move on," he said early in the proceedings. Shortly thereafter, he abruptly cut short interruptions by Democrat Hillary Clinton and Trump. "I do get to ask the questions," he reminded them,.
After a sequence supposedly about immigration policy went far afield, Wallace told the combatants it was time to "move on to the next topic, which is the economy, I hope."
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While Wallace largely stuck to high-minded issues, he did address the unavoidable elephant in the room, the parade of women accusing Trump of sexual harassment. Trump largely blamed this on mischief by the Clinton campaign, or the women's desire for "10 minutes" of fame, shortchanging them from the traditional 15. When Trump interrupted Clinton's response, Wallace noted that it was "her two minutes, sir."
When Clinton went off on a soliloquy about how wonderful the Clinton Foundation is, Wallace brought her back to earth by reminding her then question had been about pay for play.
Wallace's questioning also brought out the real news from the debate, the fact that Trump, who has been railing for quite awhile that the election is so "rigged," would not commit to accepting the result of the election, saying he would wait and see.
Memo to the Commission on Presidential Debates: Next time we do this and we're looking for moderators, let's make sure we keep Chris Wallace in mind.
Follow USA TODAY columnist Rem Rieder on Twitter @remrieder
Rieder: A better night for debate moderators
