Alessandra Stanley, "The TV Watch" columnist for the New York Times, has reviewed all four debates this election season – three presidential debates and the one vice-presidential debate -- and clearly favored the Democrats in each review.
While even the liberal media conceded Romney won the first debate and that Joe Biden may have blown the vice-presidential debate with inappropriate laughter, Stanley's coverage suggested she thought the Romney rout was a boring draw and that Biden beat Ryan. Stanley also more explicitly awarded the final two presidential debates to Obama.
Stanley's October 4 review of the first debate, "The Choirboy and the Headmaster, and a Faceoff Without Fireworks [1]," implausibly found it a draw, with no "scale-tipping" moments, though in some historical revisionism she referred to "the president’s dismal performance" in her October 12 review of the vice-presidential debate, in which she found (according to the headline) a "Night of Withering Ripostes, Mostly Delivered by Biden [2]."
The headline over her October 17 review of the second presidential debate claimed that "In Debate’s Dance, Romney Has More Missteps [3]." Stanley called Romney the loser for "peevishly calling on" moderator Candy Crowley, and: "Mr. Romney had more bad moments than the president, particularly when he challenged Mr. Obama’s claim that he early on called the attack on the American consulate in Benghazi, Libya, a terrorist attack, and Ms. Crowley backed Mr. Obama’s version of events."
Finally, Stanley's take on Monday night's debate, which she gave to Obama, made the front of Tuesday's paper: "Role Reversal Gives President Harder Line, and Punch Lines [4]."
Monday night’s debate provided an odd role reversal that made Mr. Romney seem on the defensive, particularly because he at times stuttered and sputtered in his haste to make his points. He pronounced foreign names and countries correctly, but also carefully, worried perhaps that a mispronunciation would sink his credibility. Usually, it is Mr. Obama who seems professorial and long-winded. There were long moments when Mr. Romney made the president sound succinct and sharp-edged.