After Mitt Romney’s blowout win in the first presidential debate, and Joe Biden’s blowout chompers in the Vice Presidential round, the debates have taken on an outsized importance this election season. Time Magazine unearthed an interesting nugget ahead of tomorrow night’s presidential town hall:

In a rare example of political unity, both the Romney and Obama campaigns have expressed concern to the Commission on Presidential Debates about how the moderator of the Tuesday town hall has publicly described her role, TIME has learned.

Rare, indeed. Unlike Obama’s first debate presumption that he and Mitt have “a somewhat similar position” on Social Security, it’s doubtful that their coinciding opinions on a moderator’s role are the result of Obama being too lazy to prepare a different answer. So why would they both want a moderator to butt out?

Romney surely recognizes that his first debate dominance was enabled by moderator Jim Lehrer “just letting them play”, as the sports cliché goes. Throughout their campaigns, Republicans are continually filtered by an unfriendly media, and the debate setting where they can speak directly to a large portion of the electorate is not one they want interrupted by self-aggrandizing moderators.  Continue reading →