ANOTHER PAN FOR IOWA: “The biggest loser in today’s debate by far was PBS, whose tightly wound Des Moines Register schoolmarm moderator Carole Washburn did not allow any lengthy answers, nor meaningful exchanges between the candidates; she only wanted 30 second sound bytes, and it was an abject lesson in how NOT to conduct a debate about something as serious as choosing our next President.”

UPDATE: Heh: “What the hell was Keyes doing anywhere near real candidates? Did PBS feel the need to bring someone new in to make Ron Paul look sane? And did anyone let the Secret Service know that Keyes was going to be near the real candidates?”

ANOTHER UPDATE: Piling on.

MORE: Howard Kurtz:

Okay, it was soporific. It went nowhere. It was largely a recitation of position papers. With all due respect to a newspaper editor who’s not expected to be a hotshot TV performer–and even by the standards of famous-for-being-nice Iowa–the Register’s Carolyn Washburn in Iowa seemed unfamiliar with such concepts as the followup question, or contrasting one candidate’s position with another. She even asked them for new year’s resolutions!

And what’s with refusing to ask about immigration or terrorism?

Not a great job.